Artwork Appreciation
Since the 1990s, CHOU Ching-Hui has been using photography to capture special groups of people living in the modern society. Animal Farm: Life Boundary Frame Series II shows a household with furnishing and décor befitting a middle-class household. The man stands by the bed with a numbed expression as he observes his wife injecting herself with ovarian stimulants. A painting of the Holy Mary nursing the Child hangs above the bedpost, hinting at the couple’s desire for children. The empty study suggests the cessation of work, while the large portrait of Francis Bacon symbolizes the tension and stress of a salaryman. CHOU Ching-Hui depicts the stressful and consuming human quagmire of career and family by creating an absurd and awkward modern dystopia based upon surreal and theatrical zoo-like settings.