The Phenomenology of Nutrients is an oil painting by Chinese-born, Pittsburgh-based artist Su Su. The image is evocative of a porcelain vase from China dating to the Qing dynasty that is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, titled Vase with Nine Peaches.

Su Su creates fantastical, dreamlike oil paintings that offer a new and unique understanding of intercultural exchange—a jittery, beautiful hybrid of mass media, pop culture, history, and memory with the capacity to shape our understanding of our interconnected world.

In Chinese art and folklore, peaches are a symbol of long life, and speak to the desire leaders had to attain eternal life. The number nine, similarly, is considered a mystical number because it is the highest single number attainable before a new series begins. In Su Su’s painting, we see the peaches transforming into biomorphic masses evocative of body parts, as images of Su Su’s face swirl among the forms.

By blending references to American cultural icons such as Walt Disney characters with images from Chinese art history, such as peaches and flowers taken from vases in the Metropolitan collection, Su Su’s works speak to the complicated and confusing experiences she has had as an immigrant to the United States. The distorted, swirling world of liquified pop iconographies and Chinese symbolism melting together with Su Su’s face and body reflects her struggle with the misunderstandings that shape the way China and the United States understand and portray each other’s cultures.