Artwork Appreciation
CHEN Hui-Chiao is skilled in using readymades as symbolic vocabulary to convey her concepts and sensor experiences. The Divine Comedy is inspired by the literary masterpiece of the famous medieval poet Dante telling of a fantastic journey through Hell, Paradise, and Purgatory. Ping-pong balls are placed at different angles on white-colored platforms. The orange ping-pong balls and the white squares form a rhythmic, harmonious, abstract, and geometric composition. A ping-pong ball may have a simple shape, but is capable of accommodating an infinite combination of changes. Spherical objects represent planets, and the movement of the balls serves as an analogy for revolution that acts as the key driving force of development in societies and civilizations. Simplicity and harmony, compatibility and independence are the core concepts of CHEN Hui-Chiao’s artistic elements that infinitely expand upon the spherical shapes as a response to questions regarding the existence of the mind and spirit.