Paddling Practice

作品賞析

Chen Kai-Ren’s Paddle Practice was inspired by the Chinese idiomatic phrase, “They’re like the butcher’s knife and chopping block, and we’re like the fish and meat.” The painting presents a miniaturization of society on the surface layers of human skin, in a self-deprecating and humorous way. The flesh has been cut into a square slab of meat resembling a swimming pool, and human figures, some dressed in suit and tie, play the role of coaches who instruct the figures wearing yellow swimming caps how to swim. The people seem to move freely above the epidermis, but in fact they are deeply trapped in the flesh and are controlled by the tissues and glands below. People in suits are seen as successful persons in society, while the people in yellow swimming caps symbolize the new people who are slowly being assimilated by society but still retain aspects of their respective selves. Chen Kai-Ren here is using a series of metaphors to express the cruel reality of society. What may appear to be normal daily life is actually constrained by invisible powers.