Dependence

作品賞析

Translucent but not completely transparent patterned window glass, especially the kind with flower patterns, was very common in early Taiwanese houses. However, as times have changed, this floral-patterned window glass has become less and less common. Now it has become a representative element of Taiwan’s old buildings and a symbol of cultural memory. Lee Chi-Hsiang, an artist specializing in realistic painting, uses this window glass as a kind of photographic lens, which functions like a time filter for ordinary scenes from life in order to form blurred, out-of-focus, and fragmented images. Such a method of viewing things intervenes in viewers’ visual experience and imagination, then connects with their own inner experiences. Dependence depicts only the curtains tied back behind the window, with its crabapple-blossom pattern, but the dim lighting and vague light-shadow contrast suggests evening lamplight and exudes a reassuring, nostalgic atmosphere. At the same time, the viewer is put in a situation of being blocked “outside”—which only tempts the viewer to take an even closer look.