GREETINGS FROM THE DETECTIVE | CAI ZEBIN

A tousled mustache highlights the inquisitive, penetrating gaze that seems to examine the viewer with an air of mystery. But this is not a human face—instead, it’s a formidable, anthropomorphized backside that, through the artist’s intervention, gains its own identity and looks back at us as if endowed with thought and intention.
Irony is at the heart of the artistic practice of Cai Zebin (b. 1988, active in Shantou, Guangdong, southern China). He doesn’t merely animate objects or body parts; rather, he constructs distinctive characters by depicting attributes and details that spark the imagination. In Greetings from the Detective, for example, we are confronted with a singular and provocative figure: a cocktail glass rests on the anthropomorphized bottom, complete with a slice of lemon, ice cubes, and a straw—as if suggesting a moment of relaxation. This playful gesture both contrasts with and complements the detective noir atmosphere implied by the title.
The work draws inspiration from the Japanese animated series Butt Detective (Oshiri Tantei), based on the manga of the same name, whose protagonist is a detective with a decidedly unconventional appearance: instead of a face, he has a pair of soft buttocks. Yet this does not hinder him from solving crimes with wit and determination, accompanied by his loyal assistant, Brown.
Fascinated by this paradoxical figure, Cai Zebin first created a clay model, followed by a painted version. Greetings from the Detective is the surprising and disorienting result. With its eccentric, colorful, fairy-tale atmosphere and its provocative, ironic tone—sometimes bordering on the grotesque—the work echoes the legacy of surrealism while reinterpreting it through a contemporary lens. One can trace in his art the dreamlike visions of Salvador Dalí and the sophisticated compositions of René Magritte.
Cai Zebin’s work, while seemingly playful, actually conceals a deeper invitation to reflect. The viewer is initially disoriented, yet gradually drawn in—intrigued, even interrogated—by this “detective” who observes us from a decidedly unusual point of view.

Cai Zebin
Greetings from the Detective, 2024
acrylic on canvas
89 x 69 cm
© Cai Zebin
Courtesy of the Artist and Capsule.

10/03/25