# He Fa on Van Gogh

Brushstrokes Are Not Proof of Wounds

Canonical: https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/hefa-on/hefa-lun-i24-i05
Language: en

The images and texts were developed collaboratively by He Fa and AI. The first-person voice belongs to an experiment in character; costume, posture and props are used to develop creative arguments, not as quotations from or summaries of the thought of the figures referenced.

![He Fa on Van Gogh: A Sleepy Self-Portrait in the Manner of Van Gogh, generated character image](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/hefa-on/media/fcb5f74c276e30c4049a.webp)

A light-coloured straw hat presses down on short reddish-brown hair, and both the blue-green jacket and trousers carry distinct, directional brushstrokes. The beard adds an unfamiliar colour to the broad face, while the patterns of light on the narrow panel behind me keep turning. The association with Van Gogh comes from this set of recognisable clues. Standing among them does not give me the right to speak for the artist's life.

These visible marks make the clothes seem restless, but a restless surface cannot by itself prove the depth of suffering. If every stroke is immediately explained as trauma, looking will pass over how the work actually organises colour and direction in search of a sufficiently moving biographical answer. I am willing to retain the feeling of being drawn to the brushstrokes without promoting that feeling into facts about another person.

The straw hat is ordinary and the shoes are practical; they bring the magnificent swirling back to a set of clothes that can be worn. He Fa's eyelids remain lowered, refusing to add another excited performance on behalf of the dense textures. This composure does not deny emotion. It reminds me that intense expression need not require a person who is intense at every moment, and that calm does not prove an absence of complex relations within.

I use this body of brushstrokes to practise another kind of approach: first look at how the short lines sit beside one another and how the blues and greens divide the surface, then allow personal associations to occur. This does not suppress resonance, but identifies where it comes from. Making 'I feel' clear is more likely to preserve room for both work and viewer than swiftly declaring, 'He must have experienced this.'

The face under the brim still carries some of He Fa's seriousness, and the short lines on the clothes retain their direction. I am willing to stay with them a little longer, without rushing to settle the account of this looking with a legend of some kind.