Blue Greenhouse: Sky, Sea & Our Island

作品賞析

Artist Liu Zi-Ping created his “Blue Greenhouse” series to express his reflections on the current situation in Taiwan and the world. Greenhouse cultivation was introduced to Taiwan during the Japanese period. It seems to protect plants from the environment outside, but it represents human attempts to regulate nature. Liu also uses the greenhouse as a metaphor for the colonial history of the past: the plants grow as long as they are kept  in their beds, but as soon as their leaves or shoots grow beyond the range of these beds, they will be pruned. This work uses cyanotype printing together with photographic negatives and hand-painted techniques. From left to right, we see images of a banana farm, Guishan Island, and betel nut farm, each in an enclosed greenhouse, alluding to their former colonial status, and the image of any plant that grows beyond the greenhouse walls is cropped. The blue color represents both the sky outside the glass, implying the pursuit of freedom, and the ocean, the origin of life.