This photograph documents He Yunchang’s 1999 performance Golden Sunshine. Suspended from the roof of a prison in Anning, Yunnan Province, the artist painted the wall with the same yellow paint that covered his body. Yellow paint was chosen to evoke the colour of sunshine. He later used a mirror to deflect the shifting sunlight onto a part of the wall that remained in shadow. The performance lasted two hours, beyond the thirty minutes that He expected, causing him to faint twice. He stretches his physical and mental limits in his performances, which are documented in photographs, videos, and paintings. Golden Sunshine dates from his early career and is often discussed in relation to another 1999 performance, Dialogue with Water. In this work, He was suspended upside down above the Liang River in Yunnan Province, and blood flowing from incisions in his body was carried downstream, forming what he called a four-and-a-half-kilometre cut in the river. He’s performances comment on the sensing of existence through pain and physical restrictions—specifically self-harm.