Island Writing

作品賞析

In her Island Writing, artist Yu Ya-Lan combined information she obtained from observing the environment to create an island. Yu understands that ancient hand-drawn maps contain the mapmaker’s own understanding and interpretation of the mapped places when the maps are drawn. She uses a bird’s-eye view, with the horizon set high in the work, to bring out the depth of the entire composition. The work presents a vast landscape, the kind that makes the viewer think it may have been something she had seen during a flight. The jungle on the main island spreads down to the sea, and there are smaller islands scattered around it. Far in the distance, there are high mountains, so the space contained here seems to extend almost infinitely. Yu applied concepts from ink painting in the carving of the distant mountains, using what appears to be calligraphic strokes to mark the contours. She also used many layers of superimposed colors to bring out the depth of the ocean and the lushness of the forest on the islands, so that the composition as a whole has a layered three-dimensionality.