Utopia

作品賞析

LI Cheng-Jie uses realistic and metaphorical abstract imagery centered round Laozi and Zhuangzi’s philosophies to create artworks that serve as an introspective reflection and a personal response to the outside world. Utopia uses the famous story of the Peach Blossom Valley as a metaphor and critique to society’s materialist tendencies. Serene and beautiful mountain-sceneries in Taiwan are covered by a gentle and beauteous mantle of pink peach blossoms shrouded by a soft blanket of fog. Behind the utopia, however, another story unfolds. Foreign interests marketed the promise of a better life and living conditions in exchange for the rights to develop this simple but pristine Utopia. Both the land and people were transformed, leaving no trace of the rustic simplicity that once permeates this place. LI Cheng-Jie illustrates a landscape of utopic prosperity that is shrouded in emptiness and silence to offer a Taoist critique of the modern world.