Melt away

作品賞析

Artist Yen Wen-Chun’s Melt Away depicts the moment when someone takes a bath and their tension melts away. The person in this painting is stroking her shoulder and neck with one hand, and the breath she exhales blends with the mist from the hot water. Combined with the misty mountains depicted on the light green tile wall, we are presented with a scene shrouded in clouds and mist. Traces of cupping still visible on the bather’s shoulders echo the mountains and sea through the mirror, hinting at the artist’s current yearning for a tranquil and open life. The glasses and mobile phone, set idly to the side, signal that she has freed her mind, opened up her imagination, and has the time truly to herself. Oddly, there are a few insect eggs on her face, which seem to have come from the moth resting on the wall—this brings an uncanny, eerie atmosphere to the picture. The artist used the techniques of oil painting combined with the flat, thick coating techniques of gouache, and chose thin, transparent paper with visible texture to create her work. The painting thus still reveals a kind of lightness despite the thickness of the media.