浮冰上的篝火照亮了一个奇异的世界：猎人垂目于或将被射出的箭矢，校验着它的准头；渡鸦栖息于干枯的枝头，回望着它还在盘旋着的同伴；仿佛一个无根而起的大地覆满了海水，远方山边的轮廓光不知意指黄昏还是黎明......这是李文东笔下的“蛮荒之地”。如果传统山水世界是士大夫或隐士的神往之所，那么此刻画中火光所照亮的是被历史叙事所忽略了的平行世界，无关于考古式的研究冲动，而是以想象力作为它的注释，是今天的艺术家想起了一个边陲猎户的命运。李文东以坦培拉结合湿壁画的技术反复覆写着画中叙事，成为其画中历史的编写者，一头大象的消失或许是因为在另一处痕迹中示现了一匹马。

The bonfire on the drifting ice illuminates a strange world: a hunter lowers his gaze to the arrow about to be released, carefully assessing its accuracy; a raven perches on a withered branch, looking back at its companions still circling above; as if an uprooted land were submerged in seawater, the distant mountain contours glow with a light that seems to waver between dusk and dawn… This is the “Wilderness” as depicted by Li Wendong.

If the traditional landscape world was the aspirational retreat of scholars and hermits, then the realm illuminated by the firelight in this painting reveals a parallel world overlooked by historical narratives. It does not stem from an archaeological impulse, but rather, is annotated through imagination—an artist of today recalling the fate of a frontier hunter.

Li Wendong, employing a combination of tempera and fresco techniques, repeatedly rewrites the narratives within his paintings, becoming the creator of the history depicted within them. The disappearance of an elephant in one place may, perhaps, signify the emergence of a horse in another trace.

“火”是人类原初的文明隐喻，在周妍的绘画中，它以自身的动作于画面中形成了事件，它所锚定的是一种关照状态的发生时刻，即关照自身成为了既定事实，而非来自被任何动机所需要的叙事冲动。艺术家以某种剖析性的目光游移于情绪的流动状态中，画中物象是其回应和示现，无论是燃烧过的痕迹还是某种更为具体的对象：木皮、蜡烛、肉块或牙齿，它们呈现了超越视觉构建意义的凝视状态，这一凝视将绘画冶炼为认知重塑的丹药，也是艺术家对自我发起的知识考古式的行动与实践。

“Fire” is a primordial metaphor for human civilization. In Zhou Yan’s paintings, it manifests as an event through its own movement within the composition. What it anchors is the moment in which a state of contemplation occurs—where contemplation itself becomes an established fact, rather than emerging from any narrative impulse driven by motivation.

The artist moves through the fluid states of emotion with an almost analytical gaze, and the imagery in the paintings serves as both a response and a revelation. Whether it be the traces of something burned or more tangible objects—bark, candles, flesh, or teeth—they evoke a state of gazing that transcends the construction of visual meaning. This gaze refines painting into an alchemical elixir for cognitive reconfiguration, becoming an archaeological inquiry of knowledge initiated and enacted by the artist upon the self.