Artwork Appreciation
Lin Cheng uses ink as her creative medium. She went to Paris as an exchange student and for a brief period served in the military. Her special experiences gave her different views and cultural perceptions, which also enriched and enlivened her painting. In her work, Island on the Sea (1) March 2019, the island at the center is Taiwan, and it is surrounded by five concentric circles, suggesting that through one after another circle it connects with the world. The artist adopts the traditional conception of the round sky and square earth, and combines traditional elements such as green hills and auspicious clouds with images of modern skyscrapers, thus showing a kind of conflicting beauty. Interestingly the image of Taiwan in the picture differs with the one most of us are familiar with, because Lin Cheng uses the image of Taiwan as it appears in an old map of the Ming dynasty. That island of Formosa, which leapt onto the world stage in the great Age of Discovery, still carries modern civilization and continues to move forward as a member of the global village.