Tailor Shop

作品賞析

Tailor Shop shows two women concentrating on the sewing work at hand. At first glance, it seems to be an ordinary scene. However, the hanging fabrics and the heavy blue cloth form a closed environment, creating a subtle distancing between viewers and the people in the painting. The pale bluish complexion of these figures, the wooden shelves with supplies of uncertain purpose, and other details make viewers feel that there are certain unusual elements here. The artist Shih Yung-Chun’s creative ideas often come from his literary work, and Tailor Shop, for example, is a scene from a semi-autobiographical novel he wrote to accompany one of his solo exhibitions. He prefers using sensory experience rather than dogmatic discourse, and hopes that viewers can sense the two figures’ compliance with work procedures and standardized behaviors—but at the same time, this is a virtually constructed “normal.”