D erived from Tomokazu Matsuyama's iconic "Fictional Landscape" series, The Words Stingray (2020) is a vibrant riff on the traditional tondo form. A Renaissance term for a circular work of art, the word tondo derives from the Italian rotondo, or 'round'; created since Greek antiquity, tondi (plural of tondo) was revived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Italy. Historically, tondi featured enclosed scenes, with the circular composition serving to focus the viewer's attention on the central characters. The background scene in a tondo is either simplified or omitted altogether – a stylistic strategy which is drastically abandoned by Matsuyama, who replaces sparsity with a proliferation of naturalistic imagery and patchwork patterning. Amongst this scene, a contemporary man is depicted surrounded by a bed of flowers and animals gleaned from historical paintings. The ancient Japanese expressions of "Kacho Fugetsu" (translated literally, the characters mean "Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon", but as a single phrase can be translated as "the beauties of nature") and "Snow, Moon and Flowers" (a Japanese expression and theme in art expressing appreciation for nature) praise the beauty of the seasons, with Matsuyama referencing the traditional paintings of the Edo and Meiji eras which depict these ideas.

The canvas of the present work is composed of vivid colours, with each shape made up of a myriad of pop art-esque patterns and colours that together form a coalescent discordance. Matsuyama's depiction of the landscape and the flecks of snow are rendered in traditional Japanese style whilst drawing upon the physicality of the Abstract Expressionist movement born in the United States. In this way, Matsuyama fuses various techniques and aesthetic values together into one cohesive image. Depicted in fashionable contemporary clothing, Matsuyama successfully assigns a transient and cross-cultural identity to the poised, nonchalant central figure that is free from cultural, historical, and geographical constraints by amalgamating a dichotomy of Eastern and Western cultures. 

This floaty, elusive style of depiction questions the boundaries between what is real and what is not in our modern age of digitalization and informatization. By referencing historical paintings from both ancient and modern eras of the East and West, as well as the commodities which we consume daily in our current-day lives, Matsuyama is able to create completely new images which conceptually depict modern society itself. The work featured here functions as a prime example of Matsuyama's characteristic style.

松 山智一的《黃貂魚的話》（2020）衍生自藝術家標誌性的《虛構景觀》系列，是對傳統圓形畫（Tondo）的生動演繹。「Tondo」是文藝復興時期的術語，意指圓形藝術作品，其詞源於意大利語的「Rotondo」，意為「圓形」。「Tondi」（「Tondo」複數形為「Tondi」）自古希臘時期已經存在，並於十五及十六世紀時期在意大利重新興起。歷史上，因圓形構圖會引導觀眾目光至畫布中央的人物身上，所以這種畫作往往描繪封閉的場景，背景要麼簡化，要麼完全省略。然而，藝術家大膽摒棄了這種傳統作畫方式，反而用豐富逼真的圖像和拼貼圖案取而代之。

本作描繪了一個現代人被在歷史畫作中常出現的動物和花卉所環繞。松山參考了江戶及明治時代相關的傳統繪畫，以呈現出古日本表達慣語「花鳥風月」（字面意思為「花卉、鳥類、風、月亮」，作為一個詞組可以翻譯成「大自然之美」）以及「雪月花」（在日本藝術文化有歌頌大自然的意思）讚美四季之意境。

本作五光十色，繽紛多彩，形狀由大量波普藝術風格的圖案和顏色組成，融洽中帶點不協調。松山智一一以傳統日本風格描繪景觀和飄落雪花，同時加入源自美國抽象表現主義運動的物理感，使不同的技巧和美學價值融會貫通，構成一幅環環相扣的完整畫作。松山智一自己化身畫作中那溫文儒雅，從容不迫的中心人物，為自己畫上時尚的當代服裝，為融合東西方文化的對立，打破文化、歷史和地理限制的象徵，成功賦予這人物一個瞬息萬變的跨文化身份。

在現今資訊發達的數碼化時代，這種飄忽難捉摸的描繪風格是對「真實」與「虛擬」的分野進行叩問。松山的作品旁徵博引，涵蓋東方與西方、古代與近代的歷史繪畫，以至日常生活中的消費商品，從概念上描繪出現代社會的特徵，創造出別樹一格的嶄新圖像。本作便是展現松山特色風格的最佳例子。