Water is the last of the 五行 which are the five phases that form Chinese cosmology. As the last phase, water is kind of an ending. Water is the winter and water sinks downwards. Think about what happens if you throw a rock into water or if you fall into a body of water. You sink into an abyss. That’s water. You can’t see what’s around you. Water also falls from the sky.

This is the last article in a series where we will look at some modern and contemporary artists through the lens of Chinese astrology. We’re going to only look at sculptors because materiality is too limited when it comes to painting. Sculptors can use whatever mediums they want. We’re also limited by publicly available birth info. Not all artists have their birth info public so we can only work with artists whose birthdays are known. When we look at these artists, we’re going to take special notice of the day stem because that is the part of the chart that represents the person themselves.

Here’s some information about water. Water is what flows around land. Rivers are also roads because you can row or sail through them. Water is where things circulate. Areas around water, the beaches, were the first marketplaces. Water can dissolve things and then mix them with other things. That’s why water is about circulation.

Yang water is a body of water. It is a river or the ocean or a canal. Yang water is literally a way to get from one place to another place. The Panama Canal and the Suez Canal are famous forms that yang water has taken.



Do you know who, in the art world, are water day stem people? I’ll give you a hint. Think about artists who don’t work with materials as much as the market of art itself. I’m talking about big art world people. People who are known to work their pieces the way Wall Street works their bets.

Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst are both yang water day stem people. Before Koons became an artist, he was actually working on Wall Street. That’s why he makes corporate art. Damien Hirst is known for selling a diamond encrusted skull at the moment of the 2008 market crash. That’s the type of statement he’s known for making in this world.

But neither Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst are water rat day pillars. Sometimes, Hirst works with putting objects like basketballs in a tub of water but that wasn’t quite it. I wanted to find a water rat day pillar because rat is also water. I wanted to find an artist who works in sculpture who expresses very strong water. I wanted an artist who expresses the essence of water. I found one. Or, rather, I found two. Maurizio Cattelan and Sol Lewitt.

This is Maurizio Cattelan’s chart.



Maurizio Cattelan is best known for this work:



That’s right. It's a banana duct taped to the wall. It was shown in Art Basel which is basically a big convention where a bunch of art world people gather with the world’s wealthiest to hawk their stuff. At some point, two of the bananas were eaten (they came in a set of three). Before that happened, however, they had also sold for $120,000.

How much could a banana cost? Ten dollars?

Sol Lewitts sell very well too. Sol Lewitt is thought of as the Henry Ford of art. He is a conceptual artist. All of his works are situational. He makes these rules for a drawing and then a huge number of variations using those rules. Sol Lewitt doesn’t create sculptures or drawings. He creates systems of manufacture.

Before Sol Lewitt, other artists were already challenging the idea of artist as maker by using found objects or even other artworks. Lewitt took it to a new level. After Lewitt, most artists are not only not expected to craft their own pieces but actively discouraged from doing so by the industry. Many artists have complained about this, that the industry seems to ask them to first develop an aesthetic style and then to hire student assistants (who are other artists) to keep making works in that style. The artist becomes a kind of middle manager of their own practice in this model.

Sol Lewitt pieces sell very well. The only thing is, they’re really hard to sell. Lewitt’s works are situated in the spaces they fill, becoming part of the walls that they are etched on. He literally makes them so that they can’t be removed. Lewitt never makes objects. He draws right on the wall and paints directly on concrete. Bananas, too, are not that easy to sell. The banana is only art if it is on a gallery wall. If it sells, then it becomes just a banana again. Moreover, bananas go bad and can be eaten.

Water is about trade. It’s about selling. If you create a formula, then that formula can produce work even after you are gone. Water artists make systems that continue to flow and fill up the world. Water will shape itself according to any container it fills. However, water isn’t an object. It’s a current. If you try to hold onto water, it will always trick you and escape.

This is yang water. It is a channel. It’s a path of exchange but you can’t hold onto it. It’s not an object. It’s a method.

What about yin water? Yin water is not a small creek or something. Yin water is air. It’s any water that is inside of the air including fog, the rain, snow, and frost. Yin water is shapeless. It’s actually the clouds which create the weather. That means that it is unpredictable. Yin water is a storm, a rainstorm or snowstorm.



Okay, so I wasn’t able to find someone who works in sculpture who is both yin water day stem and pig day branch. I actually had a lot of trouble finding any sculptor who is yin water day stem at all. There are a lot of actors who are yin water and this makes sense. Yin water can look like anything. Sculpture is still a materially based practice. I imagine that yin water people aren’t that into it.

But I did find one person who has worked in sculpture who is yin water day stem. Do you know who? Again, this is one of those cases where the answer was just staring me in the face. This person literally has worked with the medium that his day stem, yin water, appears in.

What kind of sculptor can work with weather? What atmospheric water? It’s not like a human being can shape the clouds. No, I’m not talking about someone making the illusion of weather. I’m talking about someone who has worked with the ephemerality of water as weather itself.

I’m talking about David Hammons, the man who sold snowballs. Here is his chart.



And here is a photo of David Hammons selling snowballs.



This is a piece that Hammons did outside of The Cooper Union. He made some snowballs after it snowed, put them on a blanket, and sold them.

Yeah, it’s meant to be funny. Snowballs can’t be art, can’t they? They’re just going to melt away. On top of that, snow is freely available everywhere. You can’t hold onto a snowball and then exchange it for value later. A snowball isn’t just a snowball, though. It’s also an experience. What do you do with one once you’ve got one? You throw it at someone!

Water is exchange. Hammons set up shop. But is this a system that outlasts the life of an artist? No. A snowball won’t even last a single hour. This is yin water. Yang water flows for a millennium because it is a river. Yin water changes moment by moment because it is a cloud.

It was hard as hell finding sculptors with water day stems. I don’t think water people like to make objects. They also don’t seem to like images either. Water is the great abyss where things can’t be seen. What does water do? It changes. Water erodes and evaporates. If you try to hold onto it, it is gone. You can’t move a Sol Lewitt and you can’t capture it in one form either. You can’t keep a David Hammons snowball.

What is water really doing then if it’s so elusive? Water channels. It moves things around. Water is like currency. Currency only has value when it changes hands. Sol Lewitt’s nonobject works move because they sell. David Hammons’s snowballs have value because they sell. The same goes for a Jeff Koons balloon dog and a Damien Hirst wet basketball.

Water works through influence. This is invisible. In fact, water hides its actions. In some ways, the aesthetics of a Koons or Hirst work is really just a distraction from what the work is really doing. It is flipping hands, rising and falling in value, like water on an uneven riverbed.