In creating this video installation, Yan Xing drew inspiration from Edward Hopper's (1882-1967) masterpiece Drug Store (1927). “Silbers Pharmacy” from the original painting is transformed into a display cabinet, and the medicines and other products displayed in the store windows are replaced by nine looped videos. The word EX-LAX on the banner in the original painting corresponds to the Chinese word xieyao 泻药 (laxative). In a Chinese context, the word xie 泻 not only means excretion and dumping, but often carries more generally negative and pessimistic implications, as well as a sense of awkwardness and shame. All nine videos interpret xie. In them, Yan Xing stacks the concept of "dirty", which is even more extreme, with obscure and melancholic content like sexuality, death, jealousy, dominance and submission, competition, and urine.
In his works, Yan Xing often examines morality and norms. Drawing from historical classics, he translates and alienates their contents, thereby establishing new aesthetic perceptions. On that basis he then examines the continuity and diversity of visual culture.