Artwork Appreciation
HUANG Po-Hsun’s Plastic Heart was inspired by plastic flowers shown in a display case at a shopping mall. The work depicts an anatomical heart assembled using abstract color blocks of different shapes painted onto a canvas composed of wooden planks nailed to each other. The brilliantly colored heart serve as a metaphor for the odd behavior of acquiring artificial changes and modifications in the pursuit for external beauty. Beautiful fantasies, however, may end like the heart shown in the work, an artificial duplicate filled with plastic materials that completely usurped and robbed the body of its original self. HUANG Po-Hsun has successfully built a unique connection with the Plastic Heart to reflect upon the extremist values that came into being as people living in modern societies sought for physical perfection.