Artwork Appreciation
In the abstract and geometric works of artist Chen Shiau-Peng, there is a concern for society. In the past decade or so, the Chinese government has carried out extensive construction projects in second- and third-tier cities. However, due to uneven population and development between urban and rural areas, countless uninhabited “ghost towns” have been created. Using this as a starting point, Chen used silk printing to create images with smooth, full-color features, which she combined with lines and rectangles to create a modern feel and respond to the rapid construction of high-rise buildings. Grids, whether rectangular or square, are strongly connected with the concepts of power and control. She arranged a number of black, white, and red dots on a grid background to create a map of China, but each dot represents a ghost city. At first glance the two sections look like a variant of go, but there are only a large number of black stones in this game, implying that this is a game dominated by one player with no real opposition. The outcome of this game can never be known.