Variabies [66]

作品賞析

Life is full of variables. At the center of this composition in single-point perspective is a superimposed photograph of the artist, Chou Yung-Chung, as a boy, wearing the formal clothes of the original studio photo, which suggests the peaceful, secure life he once lived. But he stands on a teetering chair, balanced on a sewing machine and a stool. The chair and stool represent a secure resting place, the sewing machine represents his mother, and if you look closely, on the sewing machine’s platform there is a picture of her, and the machine’s needle is threading through her eyes. If eyes are the windows to the soul, then Chou is attempting to enter it and find her life experiences through memory. After his father passed away, the family suddenly lost its economic foundation, and the pressure of making a living swept over them like a wave. The sense of having lost all security was deeply imprinted in Chou’s mind. The photograph is silent, but it evokes a sense of anxiety in the viewer—one wonders what will happen to the boy on the teetering chair. The only certain thing is that life’s variables are in fact the only constant.