Artwork Appreciation
Besides working in the fine arts, Artist HE Cai-Rou has also ventured into theater production, and likes to extend theatrical possibilities using the language of the visual arts. Her work features a theatrical tension, bearing a sense of space and stage with a discordant, cryptic, surreal quality.
This piece Untitled is in a miniature theatrical stage, upon which stand the figures of ten delicate, pale young girls wearing strange bird masks with bulbous eyes. They each grasp a pen tightly in their right hands as they stand erect on stools. The oversized masks are so heavy that their heads are cocked to one side, and their expressions show fear and doubt, tempered by a sense of determination. Starting out from her deeply rooted sense of reality, the artist carefully captures the hesitation and unease of youth before bravely striding ahead in life.