Irony, play and compassion

The accompanying calligraphy is brief, with a concentration of larger and denser characters on the wide, upper portion of the fan. Here their slight inflation allows them to occupy the expanding space in which they lie.

That the fan is gold provides another challenge as such a surface is far less absorbent; the ink puddles and cakes, making even more marked a tension between representation and substance. Gold-surfaced fans may also be considered as ironic and indulgent, not unlike gold leaf applied to contemporary luxury pastries.

And Wan's fan was put to use, perhaps admired among friends on pleasure outings. Before it was ‘retired from service’ as a valued collectible, it was folded and unfolded many times as the marks between the segments make clear.