Placed horizontally on the floor， the painted outline of the dead body is a finished piece of work for public showing and expects itself to be seen. rlhe pictured subject in the picture is dead， decomposed， objectiFied and imprinted onto the floor. Picture-making belongs to the spatial world in the strict sense， while the intended message of the picture belongs to the temporal world. The spatiality of the picture is self-evident， while the temporality of the picture is included in its spatiality. The painted picture represents the scene， conveys the message， gives its viewer a pre-defined image and raises the viewer's curiosity. It anticipates the restoration ofits original meaning and the addition of new meaning to it. Two detectives，Pablo and Louis， come to Niles's apartment to investigate the case， but all they can obtain as evidence is the painted picture. They examine the visual and the visible elements closely and strive to construct the invisible of the picture.
As a visual expression in natural and simple form， the overall conFiguration of the oudine is easily discernible as an image of death， because the picture bears certain specific characteristics of death. It appears to the detectives that this picture is produced to designate the end of a human life. Taking into account what they see， the two detectives endeavor to reconstruct the imagination of the death. Louis is playing dead and dragged across the stage
by Pablo as an instrument， but what come out of Louis's falling are his allusion of the oudine to hieroglyph and his insight of the similarity between birth and death in terms of position.
Later， Louis tries to fall into the shape of the oudine when Pablo rushes to fetch his briefcase.He even adjusts his body according to the awkward position in the picture. They struggle to discover the invisible by building a main storyline the picture connotes. Ihey bring the temporality of the picture into play， by extending the framed scene to the moments before and after the picture was produced. In this sense， they are "more than detectives looking for
evidence； they are characters in search of an author" （Mottram 123）， the producer of the picture along with the intentions.
Confronted with the visual form， Pablo and LOLUS regard the pictured subject as the famous jazz musician Niles， since the picture stays on the floor of his apartment. As they scrutinize the details of the presentation， an overwhelming sense of uncertainty begins to dominate， since no concrete detauls could assist with the contextualzation of the death， Louis reasons with reference to the studium of the picture and the corresponding associations. He questions the fact of the man's death and puts forward his theory， when he falls onto the floor consciously for the third time. According to his theory， the subjea of the picture just disappears and fools people off by laying low， after producing abundant un-heard-of before symphonies， concertos and qLuntetS. However， he is unable to provide an adequate answer to Pablo's question concerning the reason ofdisappearing when his career reaches its climax.
Ihe bewilderment at the outset clearly touches upon the mystical status of the subject.The detectives rack their brains for speculations and hypotheses to probe into the causes for the death. The visual and the visible of the picture are discernible， but the invisible complicates the situation to a large extent， since locating its producer is notoriously difficult.
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