Artwork Appreciation
JHAN Jhuang-Syuan’s works focus on family memories of sadness, poverty, and housing justice.
Chopping and Sink shows a kitchen sink filled with dirty water, scraps of food, an unclean chopping board, and knife. Although most of the scene has been washed over with white paint, these areas conceal personal wounds that cannot be described in mere words, and represent the beautiful memories that have been withheld from the artist himself.
JHAN Jhuang-Syuan made use of painting to describe personal pains that cannot be put in words. The process of artistic creation serves as a form of self-therapy, where fine ideas and different art methods are combined to illustrate aberrant physical states and communicate complex memories and attachments. JHAN Jhuang-Syuan has used the artwork to metaphorically express past losses as well as indescribable and intense pain as he continues to search for an answer.