Flowers in the mirror, images in dreams

作品賞析

Artist Hsu Pei-Cheng believes that art can become a kind of emotional utopia for people because it can create dreamy and unreal visions, much like the ancient Chinese expressions of “flowers in the mirror” and “the moon reflected in water.” These phrases convey the idea of beauty or desire that is unattainable or illusory. In his work, Flowers in the Mirror, Images in Dreams, he created a “Grand Prospect Garden” like the one described in Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, a masterpiece of Chinese literature that explores the intricate lives, emotions, and fates of the Jia family. The mountains, lakes, and human figures in the composition are depicted with the freehand lines of “sketching the idea” in Chinese painting. Several women dance in a round area made of mirrors—the reflected moon. The space of the garden is quite heterogeneous, and Hsu Pei-Cheng thinks that a mirror serve as a passage into a different time and space. When a figure is reflected in a mirror, it enters the illusory world on the other side. The work is clearly divided into two parts. One is the human stage where ladies play and have fun, and the other is a fantasyland set off by a black background. In the upper left, the Goddess of Disenchantment, opens the curtain. She is a prophet and an all-knowing person. She looks at Jia Baoyu the protagonist in Dream of the Red Chamber, hiding behind the moon gate and sees life as a dream.