In this piece of work, a person was placed in a condition of simple game. He has to avoid a wide range of falling objects, including flower pots, TV set and motorcycles. I meant to take it as a good model or measurement of someone who is able to fit into a dangerous situation.

In this work, the audience sees that the performer, the artist himself, jumps between two areas, divided by a simple white line on the ground and the wall, in order to avoid a wide range of falling objects, including flower pots, TV sets and motorcycles. The pace of the objects falling and the performer’s jumps are very consistent and steady.

The title of the work evokes a Chinese idiom associated with a story in which God sends rain to people after a long period of drought. It is an idiom associated with superstition, addressing people’s struggle as a matter of life and death, and thus anticipates help from God.

Tsui uses this idiom for the title of the work in a parodic way. In The Welcome Rain Falling from The Sky, he transforms the rain into falling objects, and the human struggle into the performer’s avoidance of dangerous situations. This parodic use of a title has appeared often in his works, as we discussed in The Vehicle and will discuss in the series works entitled Eighteen Copper Guardians in Shao-Lin Temple and Penetration and The Shortcut to the Systematic Life. Since these Chinese idioms are well-known by Chinese people, the works immediately create a sense of irony and the ridiculous for Chinese audience.

In The Welcome Rain Falling from The Sky, Tsui again places his performer in a game-like situation, playing in the dangerous environment. This game also involves the performer’s use of body movement and the forces of gravity and acceleration, represented by the falling objects.

The performer seems to play on a stage: the spatial environment here resembles a drama stage. The impression of drama is strengthened by the artist’s parodic appropriation of the Chinese idiom and by his simple and droll body movements. The falling objects also create a theatrical feeling of danger and ironic absurdity for the audience. The elements of drama and theatricality appear and form a core for the series Eighteen Copper Guardians in Shao-Lin Temple and Penetration and The Shortcut to the Systematic Life.