Artwork Appreciation
Artist Liao Chao-Hao is good at using papier-mâché to shape and reinterpret various everyday objects made by hard materials such as steel, cement, and rubber. In his work Life Buoy, he used papier-mâché to recreate the ring that people often use when doing water activities. Here the life buoy serves as the medium through which viewers can perceive what is happening on the distant seas, via the various traces left by long exposure to sunlight, seawater, and evaporation, or the green left by seaweed. Liao first made a mold, and then, inspired by ceramic twisting techniques, came up with the idea of using papier-mâché made with paper of different colors to simulate the wavelike, weathered texture left from seawater that he imagined, so that viewers can sense and appreciate the existence of water, while at the same time appreciating the artist’s ingenious and aesthetic use of materials.