Artwork Appreciation
SHIH Chin-Hua has been exploring conceptual and behavioral art for many years. Pen Walking #62 is one of his representative works in this area. To SHIH Chin-Hua, a pencil is a symbol for a living entity, and its trails represent its lifelong activities. The gradually shortening pencil, on the other hand, is an analogy for the mortal body. Irregular pencil trails are used as an analogy for an entire lifetime. The artist creates a dark, black trail going back and forth along the canvas with a pencil, while deliberately leaving behind pencil shavings arranged into small clusters scattered amongst the pencil trails to symbolize the embers of life. SHIH Chin-Hua uses a behavioral and documentary approach that integrates both texts and images to create a holistic history of life, highlight the marks and trails of life and ideas, and investigate the true nature and representation of life itself.