Hug-01

作品賞析

Artist Hsu Chih-Wei is good at using classical oil painting techniques to depict contemporary animation and model figures. In Hug-01, a naked figure wearing a bear mask stands in an empty space with a golden background. The swirling graphics were intended to represent the coronavirus that seemed to be exploding like fireworks everywhere, and the picture still conveys a sense of crisis. The slightly upward viewing angle adds to the sense of uneasiness in the picture, while the little bear character can only helplessly stretch out its arms to ask for a comforting hug from the viewer, perhaps looking forward to a salvation that seems never to arrive. In Hsu’s other works, such as Sleep-05 and The Other Shore 3.0, and in this work, Hug-01, one can feel that Hsu is gradually pulling away the colors. The bright yellow bear mask in Sleeping has turned to a grey-white tone here. Hsu has said that the use of gradually more low-chroma tones is a kind of farewell, suggesting that his series of masked nude figures will eventually come to an end.