While visitors to the China Pavilion at the World Expo Shanghai are free to roam around the exhibition areas on three stories, just above them there is another “secret” floor which is not open to the public, and instead functions as space for receiving VIP guests, hosting meetings, and displaying special exhibits. This floor is laid out following a traditional Chinese Jiugong (nine-lattice) pattern, with its nine halls devoted to different themes. The highlight of the lobby is an impressive watercolor painting, 10 meters wide by 5 meters tall, entitled Celestial Water Carrying No Boundary – World Continents Sharing One Origin. This masterpiece features three dominant colors, created by mixing paint with water taken from different parts of the world: The rosy part adopts the snow water of the first winter after the 2008 Beijing Olympics; the azure blue “sky” comes from the early 2009 winter snow from the Alps; and the bright orange “rivers” are formed by Shanghai’s snow on the eve of the 2010 Chinese New Year.

“When I first came to the construction site of the China Pavilion, I came up with the idea of creating a painting with water from different locales,” the artist, Ms. Angélique Shidi, explains. “It is not a publicity gimmick. I feel that waters from different places have different traits, which can adapt to different colors and express different emotions.” In her view, watercolor painting is an ideal approach because of its ability to blend and absorb. “My paper and pigments were all imported from Britain. I believe top-quality materials are vital for a high class creation.”

Shidi did not major in painting, but instead learned gemology. After several years studying in the United States, she graduated in 2004 with diplomas certifying her as an Accredited Jewelry Professional and Graduate Gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America. Her creation for World Expo Shanghai incorporates her knowledge of precious stones. “I mixed the snow water from different places with gem microlites from five continents,” she says. “The gems are metallic, and according to traditional Chinese Wu Xing [or Five Elements - a system of five phases used to describe interactions and relationships between phenomena], metal feeds the water, and water nourishes all living things, so that the snow water and the gem microlites are combined to create something beautiful and organic.”