The series PAST by Cao Yingbin feature empty indoor spaces in his life. Like a glutton, he swallows every space in his life, digests it, and excretes what's left. With purposely unsophisticated techniques, those ‘half-digested'works are arranged on a wall like specimen in a science museum. He drags us into his world with his unusual style, simple, direct and reckless. Looking at his paintings is like standing alongside him and peeping into his personal spaces. We obtain a blurred identity that is neither of an onlooker, nor of an insider. Are we looking at Cao's, others'or our life? Or are we trying to see the truth of life subconsciously?

Eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and sleeping, making friends, travelling and working: these routines constitute the external truth about life. We see people that are superficial, tasteless, ingratiating, blundering, concealing and extravagant everywhere, while commonness and surprise, beauty and ugliness complement each other.

Although Cao's life seems disenchanting with no element of grandeur, the truth of life can be found in the little ‘fun’ in his works.