text by Sophie Mclntyre
Nie-ching, the Mirror of Evil, records our karma which we can not avoid. -- Chen Chieh-Jen
At first glance, the viewer is confronted by the horror of death and mutilation. A closer analysis, however, reveals that these historical records are in fact computer-generated digital manipulated images which the artist uses as a means to examine present day issues about power, punishment and redemption. Drawing on traditional Buddhist and Taoist notions of Purgatory and Hell, which are graphically represented in many Taoist temples in Taiwan, Chen holds up the Mirror of Evil to warn potential sinners of their fate.
In these monumentally-large works collectively titled, "Revolt in the Soul and Body, 1900-1999", Chen demonstrates how "reality", as we know it, is manipulated or concealed by the "power of authority". As an artist who personally experienced the effects of martial law in Taiwan, Chen exposes the mechanisms employed by the power structures, specifically by politicians and the mass media, who effectively suppress and distort reality, so that we, as an audience, can no longer differentiate between fact and fiction.
In "Being Castrated" (1996) and "Self Destruction" (1996), Chen utilises the monochromatic, cropped newspaper-format, to seemingly re-present two significant events in China's history: the Boxer Rebellion and the rise of Chinese Nationalism. Using these historical photographic records as his point of departure, Chen enlarges and re-defines the image through computer technology, so that eventually the "original" is lost within this virtual reality. In his works,'Chen superimposes his own image over that of the victim, perpetrator and spectator photographed in the "original". In doing so, Chen personalises this history, and implies that every individual is capable of performing all three roles, and of exercising good as well as evil. In "Image of Identical Twins" (1998), the artist is pictured as a two-headed entity, clutching a nuclear device in one hand and a tree of life in the other. His stomach is split open to expose life's "energy source" (huo); while around him a sea of decapitated heads perforates the consciousness of the spectator.
Suffering is an integral theme in these works. In reference to the hundreds of tortured, dismembered bodies captured here, Chen recalls the story of the Ch'an master, Fei-Ke, who cut off his arm to overcome his fear and to attain Nirvana. In various Taoist rituals still practised today in Taiwan, the tang-ki (spiritual mediums) also perform acts of self- mutilation to demonstrate their piety and their ability to transgress the confines of the body.
Beyond the visual imagery in these works, Chen is interested in the inter-relationship between "mind", "body" and "spirit". In the Christian world these elements are often segregated by scientific, rational thought processes; while those who adhere to the traditional principles inherent to Buddhism and Taoism regard these as aspects of a whole, as one entity. Through his work, Chen traces the journey from one life into the next, rather like a ferryboat crossing the waters from which concealed or suppressed memories float to the surface, drawing the viewer into a deep contemplation of his or her past, present and future. |
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