Artwork Appreciation
The artist Chen Cheng-Fang grew up in a military dependents’ village, so she has a lot of nostalgia for these villages. Through her photographs, she leaves images full of memories. In Tiles of Nostalgia: Disappearing Veterans’ Villages, we see pictures of 12 soon-to-be-demolished houses in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying Military Dependents’ Village. Below each building, there is a long strip showing tiles of different patterns. For each building, there are ten tiles, and the 12 building-and-tile photos are set in a 4 x 3 array that one can “read” in sequence, like a narrative. Chen Cheng-Fang here attempts to reassemble the original appearance of the military dependents’ village from the remaining dilapidated houses and old bricks scattered on the deserted grounds, looking for traces of past life. The dilapidated buildings make a bleak contrast with the exquisite tiles, and the photos record the change and disappearance of things.