This series was created in collaboration with my daughter, Chanina Katz. The first painting we did together was Coexist III. I had created the field of green colors and lines first. Unsure of what to do next, I left the painting unfinished for a long time. Upon looking at it, Chanina suggested that she could work on it. She came up with various ideas and eventually decided on a sketch that she had drawn, which showed an arm thrusting out of a frame suspended in mid-air, like a portal.
A while later, I chanced upon a new English translation of the Heart Sutra by one of my favorite Buddhist teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh. We read it together, along with a Chinese translation, trying to understand the nuances in the translations and the “heart” of the text. We thought about the senses mentioned in the Heart Sutra, and how we could perhaps do a series of paintings on these senses. From my studies in Buddhist symbolism, I know that the hand drawn by Chanina looks like Buddha's raised hand in the abhaya mudra, the gesture of fearlessness, protection, peace, and benevolence. In the system of the Five Dhyani - Wisdom, or jingang (金剛) - Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism, the color green, which Chanina has used, is also associated with wisdom, the element of air, the sense of touch. Along the line of thinking on the Five Dhyani, Buddhas, I decided to create four more paintings with the following color associations: red-fire, blue-water, white-space and yellow-earth. Chanina, on the other hand, decided to stay away from literal translation and traditional conventions. She kept to her original idea of the hand and the frame, where the hand is not necessarily the Buddha's hand.
When the paintings in the series are viewed side by side, the frame seemingly expands and contracts as the hand enlarges and reduces in size. The hand is also turning, like the phases of the moon, perhaps representing a cycle, or the transience of life. Does this series of paintings speak to the fragile coexistence of human and nature? My coexistence with my daughter? Or the coexistence of the traditional frame of mind and the now? We have left much to chance, working with our different points of view, allowing our thoughts, our interpretations, and our images to coincide. (Cowritten with Chanina Katz)
《共存》這一系列是我與17歲的女兒孔善樂的合作畫。我們第一張合作的是《共存之三》。我開始作畫的時候，完全沒有考慮到跟人合作的可能性。我只是在紙上用潑墨潑彩的方式製造了一片綠顏色和線條，因為我喜歡那些顏色和流動的線條。之後，我有好幾個月都不知道要怎樣繼續處理這張畫，一直把它擱在桌上。善樂偶然會來看看，一天她提議不如讓她試試看完成那張畫。她有很多不同的構思，最後，她決定用她筆記本內的其中一張，畫的是一隻手臂，從一個框框裡伸出來，框框有如一道存在於第四道空間的門。
又過了一段時間，我與善樂一起讀我最喜歡的佛教導師一行禪師最新的《心經》英文翻譯。我們也邊讀邊對照傳統中文的《心經》，嘗試去明白其中的分別，以了解文中的核心。我們考慮到經文內對各種感官有趣的表白，我便產生了一個想法，也許，我們可以合作一系列與感官有關的畫。從我對佛教符號的了解，我知道善樂在《共存之三》內的一隻手，與佛的『無畏』手印有相似的地方。『無畏』手印代表著放心、和平、祝福。在西藏密宗的《五智如來》思想系統內，綠色也代表『無畏』和智慧，在元素中綠色代表空氣，在感官上綠色代表觸感。這些剛巧與我們合作的配搭不謀而合。根據《五智如來》的顏色系統，我便再畫了四張：紅－火，藍－水，白－空間，黃－土。善樂的想法比較脫離傳統或是宗教的關係，她仍然用她的手和框框，她的手不一定是佛教裡的手印，也許是她自己的手。
當這五張畫並排在一起的時候，你會看到框子的大小跟手的大小相反，它們相對的擴大和縮小。手在轉，好像月光的週期，好像在喻意無常。「共存」這系列是在表達人與大自然之間的脆弱的共存嗎？或是代表我與女兒之間，一個中年人與一個青年人的共存？還是喻意著傳統觀念的框框與現代主動行為的共存？我和善樂彼此給了大家創作的空間，讓我們的思想、表達方式和意象有隨意偶合或是撞擊的機會。 (與孔善樂合寫)
