text by Jo Hsiao
A Room with a View was installed in the cafeteria of the former Air Force Command Headquarters. Arranged within the space are 16 beds; and the needles, thread, and text (machine embroidery) used are all materials frequently used by the artist, and the subject matter of this work is still an intimate dream. Chen Hui-Chiao once dreamed of a plane crash, even though it was a very vivid dream, she could not understand the metaphor. This was until she went to someone who was able to explore her past life, and that person provided a story of a flight that responded to her dreams. Through analysis on her past life, she was once a British pilot in a World War I reconnaissance plane. Before the end of the war, the fuel tank of the reconnaissance plane she piloted was hit by the Germans and the plane crashed. Half of her body toward the fuel tank was burned, and she survived.
Chen's works are just as she would say: an exploration of the mysterious experiences and feelings one may encounter. At the beginning there were dreams. She tries to explore the dreams and proceed to explain them. Through the explanation, she explores the meaning of its existence. Perhaps we can say that she sees a certain aspect of her artistic creation through her dreams. These beginnings of dreams and their exploration are all "real" themes and are the entrance to all her works. She is clearly involved in her own dreams, combining Western astrology to investigate the interactions between man, the world, and the universe. For Chen, creating art is expressing her attitude towards metaphysics and occultism through these interactions. This is a description of her own consciousness, revealing a complex self-redemptive perspective, and at the same time, it is a very conscious way to analyze the trajectory of life rather than looking at it through subconscious from a psychological approach.
In this brand new work, the military base of the former Air Force Command Headquarters became the stage of the artist and the link between the dream and the resulting artwork. The intriguing aspect of A Room with a View is that it is not just an installation; it is also the "artist's material"; the artist jumped onto the stage and performed a monologue. There is no need for any real actions. This monologue is her statement and conclusion for various life experiences. She is like a dream interpreter, waiting to tell the audience the sky, the war, the astrology, and the military technology, and how they all twist and clash together behind the dream!
Chen has previously mentioned that this time she wants to create something that is light and graceful. Perhaps from a certain perspective, she uses colors to express the images of the sea, clouds, and sky, which are combined with embroidery of poppies and astrological signs to create a site of physical sensory. Similar to the theory by Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) on the "Theatre of Cruelty" - the theatre must pass through the body of the audience in order to convey the subtlest ideas. No matter how urgent or fierce the story is, Artaud's "Theater of Cruelty" evokes the sensibility of the audience through imagery; this kind of theatre is extremely poetic and most meticulous in presentation. He advocates bringing the theatre back to its original state of magic, using images to stimulate people to enter the state of enchantment through any means. Just like in Chinese acupuncture, the subtlest effect can be produced by unblocking the meridians of the human body (from The Theatre and its Double by Antonin Artaud). Chen discusses past life, current life, the universe and cosmos, war, and the development of all kinds of experiences enabled by modern science and technology. With a wealth of imagery, she uses art as a needle hoping to induce the finest human emotions regarding life, morality and aesthetics.
Of course, she is also searching for an answer. Although she did not clarify who the answer is for, through searching, it expresses an idea of "self-revelation." In A Room with a View, Chen is investigating topics ranging from hot-air balloon to space mining, from artificial intelligence to satellite communication to make her own wiki booklet. Filling her brain with information related to flying, related to the sky, she is performing a self-revelation act through her self-taught processes. Chen mentioned that November 11, 2018 was the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, and the belief that her previous life was a British pilot deepened her fervent desire for flying. Through the artwork, the artist hints at the completion of the dream about flying by self-revelation. Perhaps the most surprising reality will eventually combine with dreams, and this combination makes her feel free, comforted, and sums up her past and present life.
Finally, we can be certain that the descriptive title of this work is the focus of a scene. This scene is reminiscent of the ideas and meanings behind the work. It is not a scene of cliché, but a clear expression of the artist's ideas (this is the reason why the work exists). Whether acting on the basis of rational or irrational arguments, art provides a method to reproduce ideas, open up all kinds of possibilities, and it can certainly avoid the dilemma of self-indulgence and self-action. Chen Hui-Chiao's work reveals herself through a complicated circular path; perhaps this means that "self-redemption" is the script which the artist has written for herself. Regarding this play, the artist has pushed herself onto the stage and thoroughly examined her own life experience.
Postscript: In Flanders Fields
Within the work, Chen Hui-Chiao quoted a poem by Canadian military doctor, John McCrae, In Flanders Fields, which was written in memory of a young fellow soldier who died in battle. Through the words of the poem, Chen became involved without hesitation to express her thoughts: She transformed written words into visual creations; this transformation presents a particularly serene texture that keeps the audience from approaching, and could only keep their distance from the work. The work tries to induce the rationality of the audience from the emotional distance, providing a reaction that is far stronger and more powerful than any emotions which was merely rendered.
On her artistic path, Chen is an elegant and lonely travelling bard, who only conveys to the audience what she believes! Whether they are reflective or contemplative thoughts or objects, she is always immersed within and unable to separate herself. Her works are filled with geometric shapes, cold in style and with a sense of distance. The content often expresses the mystery between humanity and the corresponding cosmos. This development perfectly outlines her belief in formalistic aesthetics. The appearance of her works is highly abstract; the content is only created through non-figurative colors and forms, and the true meaning of art exists as form and expression.
Chen is indeed a bard travelling between the battlefields of Flanders, always decorating the content with formalistic skills. She is emotionally sensitive but resists sensibility, fearing that the spirit will yield to emotion and result in the loss of her determination. She does not believe the soul is something light but tries everything possible to keep the work light in order to ease the heavy soul. She does not want to just "stay living"; with regard to art, she wants to present the purest work.
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