奇美博物館 | CHIMEI Museum

What led me to still life painting is a white porcelain plate. Every time after a meal, I lay my eyes on it as if it was a precious treasure, that is placed in a prominent place so that people can pay it their respect. This experience helped me with clues to link together the meanings of still life paintings with their relationship to the real world. Therefore, still life paintings are a window that I use to reveal the imageries of the real world, it is also an introspection for maintaining the spirit.

"From puppet shows, clay oven rolls and fried bread sticks, to plastic bags, I have been looking for a taste – the taste of this land – in my paintings, emotions, memories, and life." No form of art can be separated from the land, life, and changes in the times, the environment, society, and cities. I chose to use realist paintings to record my life. For me, realist paintings are not simply a reproduction, but a form of emotional sustenance that allows me to channel my feelings for the better. Through long-term observation, hammering, and extraction, I look for a connection between life and the spirit, and hope to give my work a spirit of the times.

Through expression on a philosophical level, artistic creations can shape a simple poetic scenario, where the shifting of forms, brush strokes, and the layout can create a pristine dimension in the seemingly-empty space. Memories of the sea from my hometown have been incorporated with contemporary post-minimalism, so that simple artworks portray spiritual energy, sieving away the heaviness and textures of this era to create a new visual image of the soul. Metaphysical decisions bead together as we explore life, forever facing the uncertain outcomes of waiting and different states. Through the transliteration of memories, painting reveals the seascapes of the mind and paves a quiet and empty realm. Through the layering of simple colors and orderly repetitions of written records, an attempt has been made to reinterpret seascapes within the memory once a journey has concluded, to explore the connection and re-appearance of visibility and meditation in memory, as well as to timely present the views and reactions within the artist's momentary social observations in a non-literal manner. This is a refinement and purification process on the most simplified level, attempting to create a sense of stillness in the work that is close to "null," and resembling a mind-clearing state that is similar to "emptiness" in Zen.

The self-proposition of my creation is that "how and what" is the state of mind under certain time and space conditions: she (he) may be happy to accept the reality, or may be in the anxiety period of "spirit evolution"; and I believe in by way of the art of painting I can interpret or express such a text, so I always look at the society in which I live with a pair of historical lenses, describe as much as possible the relevant and representative personnel and objects, and rather than paying attention to the trend of current art environment, I am more concerned about whether my creation is involved in the spiritual growth of human beings.
In my opinion, the so called Abstract is the subliminal and "Micro" structure under the Figurative. The Figurative representation is the self-expression with a Macro approach based on the Abstract concept. And in my cognition, abstraction and figuration are only different on the macro or micro approach but are based on the same text. Can art be seen in the evolution of human civilization? Can this be an artist's question?

I use realistic oil painting techniques oil painting techniques to precisely depict the burdens and sorrows of Asian women under the authoritarian system. With each fold of the clothes, I concentrate; carefully trace the dragon and phoenix patterns and embroideries of flower and bird on the fabric. In the same way that the seamstresses in ancient times who meticulously embroidered needle after needle, I use my heart and soul to depict and to figure out the sadness and despair of women from ancient days who were restricted their entire lives, tamed and kept. "Embroideries, dried bones, flowers birds butterflies, wedding gown and phoenix crown, and women..." These objects are like fragmented memories, constantly being replicated and borrowed to be reset in the paintings scenarios that I created, almost as if they were real. It is as if I am using art to express my outcry against the shackles of tradition through my own experiences as a woman, by using a classic and fragile, yet loud and powerful method to sigh over the uncertainty of life, and to narrate the emotions, love, and life of Asian women.

Life is composed of traces of memory rewritten day by day, gradually forming an individual’s understanding and conception of what time and space feels like. As time progresses and moves through living spaces, it enables people to constantly strengthen the intimate relationship between themselves and their living environments through interactions as they partake in reality and its understanding.
 

The main concept behind this series is using the senses to capture external messages for comparison and distinction of the cognitive gap in memories. With overlooking perspective, viewers can behold the unnoticed corners and scenes, the scattered objects, and the layered images of daily life, as well as the traces of small changes caused by meandering time to search for one’s real existence in life.

I see paintings as a way of expressing emotions and life experiences, the conversion of realistic techniques and abstract expression techniques can fully express the rational and emotive thoughts of emotions. When the modes of expression exist in the form of a creative vocabulary, the content of the work is the embodiment of personal emotion, the creation stemmed from life and will eventually return to life!

The works in my New Paradise series (Heehee Haha) make use of exaggerated body movements to transmit a sense of happiness to portray a humorous and funny side, so that the viewer can smile and be mesmerized by the new paradise I arranged. I anthropomorphized the animals and used objects from everyday life, as well as cities as the subject of expression. Virtual space, vibrant colors, romantic lighting, infinite time and space have been depicted through classical realism, which are formed into a seemingly-real and magical visual world through re-arrangement and re-combining. In the image, there is a plane in the three-dimensional, and there is space in the plane. The three-dimensional and the plane are interspersed so that the viewers can feel as if they were in the scenario and wander around inside the scene and space created. Each object seems to be narrating and holding a dialog, and through the use of realist techniques, the sense of playfulness is enhanced in the painting, to create a world of magical happiness.

In human history, sculptures symbolize civilization. The classical sculptures of the Ancient Greek era advocated the full muscular form to represent the human imaginations of the Olympic gods and were imbued with mythical concepts. This conception of divinity is also a reflection of humanity for a higher and better realm.
 

The ancient city of Salamanca was where I studied, it was a bustling university town during the Age of Discovery in the seventeenth century. The city has many lovely buildings, there are castles, stone bridges, numerous churches, and countless stone houses. But there are even more new buildings, co-existing with the ancient buildings, forming a unique feature of this city. In the Gentle Sorrow Series, it depicts combinations of many local architecture and sculptures, where a large amount of vegetation has been incorporated to transmit a concept of symbiosis with nature. The sculptures symbolize humanity, the city is the product of civilization, but the tree shadow is nature. This creation was completed in my Taipei studio in 2012.
 

Spanish still life was my form of practice when I first started learning oil painting; it was also a part of my learning process when I was studying in Spain. In the paintings, I tried to find still life objects with different textures to practice. A number of oil painting techniques and materials have also been tested to obtain results.

"The culture between east and west," "past and present," has always been the core theme of my work. I have experienced several major relocations in my life; I lived in the United States for many years with my parents when I was a child then back to Taiwan. After graduated from university, I went to Spain for further studies, and finally returned to live again in Taiwan. This experience of traveling through eastern and western cultures has influenced my outlook on life and influenced my creative thinking later on.
 

Due to my passion for classical European art, I was exposed to a large number of ancient paintings during my time in Europe and studied the materials and techniques from the old masters. In the creative process, I chose to use the method of reappropriation to combine the works of classical masters with the scenes of Taiwan's current society. It comes with some humor and coexists harmoniously with the others in the picture.
 

I hold the mentality of art restoration, blending the traditional painting techniques in my practice in contemporary times. I wish to lead the viewers to enter a dialogue that spans through time, space and culture.

＊ Continue with Realist Painting for Further Exploration
The exploration and application of the ancient traditional realist painting techniques to be presented through a contemporary spirit, to explore the extraordinary beauty in the ordinary landscape.

＊ Capturing the Landscape of the Subjective Vision
Based on the objective scenery where imagination of subjective emotions are added to create a new landscape of personal life characteristics.

＊ Oriental Ink Art Conception Integrated with Western Classical Realist Painting
Oriental lines and brush strokes, white space for the image composition, ink layers, and ethereal quality together with the perspective, light and shadow, texture, and three-dimensional quality of the West.

＊ Using the natural scenery of Taiwan island as a metaphor for cultural history, ecological environment, and lifestyle "Sounds of Stream," "Words of Stone," "Songs of Island," "Mountain," "Seeds," and "Flowers and Grass" series have different elements in various combinations to create different meanings, serving as a metaphor to this island’s beauty and sorrows, or a certain beautiful aspect of life!