Fire Hydrant

作品賞析

Artist Liao Chao-Hao is good at using papier-mâché to shape and reinterpret various everyday objects made of hard materials such as steel, cement, and rubber. He understands that fire hydrants appeared in Taiwan only after Taiwan had a modern tap water system, but people often ignore such things, so fire hydrants almost seem not to exist. In the surface of his work Fire Hydrant, one can see traces of wavy lines on thick cardboard, which are signs of damage deliberately created by the artist. He used many layers of acrylic paint that he polished in order to create a weathered appearance, with traces of rust from exposure to rain. The finished papier-mâché work is hollow, which implies that people usually see only the appearance of these modern facilities but cannot see the symbolic meaning behind them.