First shown in the inaugural Diriyah Biennale (2021), The Pavilion of Three Mirrors aims to render an abstract and poetic representation of this ancient story, which provides many insights into the different conceptions of visual representations between cultures. The work also sheds light on the premodern history of cultural exchange that goes unnoticed in our present time, while offering an alternative paradigm of image-making through the rediscovery of a shared legacy across cultures.

In addition to the pavilion, the exhibition comprises 25 Rules of Grammar, a series of 25 painted panels, alongside two archive tables. Utilizing woodblock stamps Han Mengyun collected in India in 2020, she reinterprets traditional motifs, stamping directly onto canvas in varied compositions. Treating the stamps as brushes, she reconfigures these patterns into novel semantic structures, creating a tapestry of her unique visual lexicon. This experimental use of woodblocks is further embodied in The Interpretations of Dreams, a series of paintings surrounding the Mirror Pavilion, where brick-patterned blocks evoke architectural spaces and forms. 

The two archive vitrines display woodblocks collected in Jaipur, India, and China, along with photographic documentation from her field research in Indian textile workshops in 2020. Woodcut printing, one of humanity’s earliest and most significant technological and artistic innovations, has profoundly shaped global cross-cultural history. Its development paralleled that of papermaking, which originated during China’s Han Dynasty and revolutionized information preservation and transmission. As woodcut printing traveled along ancient trade routes, it linked China with Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, catalyzing a vast network of exchange. The cross-cultural history of woodcut printing illustrates the adaptability of art across borders and through time. Its transience and resilience allowed it to evolve uniquely in each new region it reached. By engaging with this ever evolving tradition, Han Mengyun participates in a transcultural, transhistorical dialogue that has fostered a globally shared cultural legacy.