To the New World

Chenyi's current body of work "Subway" series attempts to express the ideas surrounding the feeling of isolation and loneliness. This is a process of exploring the relationship between people and the world in which they live. Everyone has their own perspective on the world and their relationship to it. Even as people live increasingly closer to one another as urban density strengthens, people have become more andmore alienated. The paintings render the phenomenon of social isolation, alienation and loneliness, thereby reflecting the universal and inner most psychological states of contemporary life. The inspiration for the work comes directly from observations in crowds and from the appearance of people in the high-pressure environment of a big city. The subway is emblematic of all aspects of the fast rhythm of the city. Loneliness is increased by contrast between movement and quiescence.

The subway reflects different spaces and adds crowding to the painting as a statement about the complexity of the city. Life, society and theworld are viewed through this contrasting perspective. The distorted mirrored space evokes a feeling that reality can follow an infinite number of alternate paths and underpins the coldness of loneliness. And seeking personal goals on different paths.

Falling into the Box of Dreams

My current series "Wonder Land" attempts to explore the connection between human beings and the world they live in, and it is presented in an abstract and detached form. It is a study of the possibility of the creative process in different states of consciousness, subconsciousness,and unconsciousness. It also analyzes the dreams and the spiritual world. The works are composed of geometric compositions, surreal objects and brilliant colors, to express the strangeness of the Wonder Land. By using the cultural elements from different regions and exploring their homogeneity and dissimilarity, while we can explore the spiritual symbolism power of graphics from the origin of mankind. 

The inspiration of the work comes from a fantasy dream I had during my childhood nap. As the environment around me distorted and moved closer, it gradually swallowed me into a colorful world. In the dream, I am creator. I give the life, light and color to all the materials in it, meanwhile I travel through it and observe with different perspectives. I named the works Day 1, Day 2... in a diary way as if to record which I saw and felt. 

For traditional cognition, this series is not only disintegration and revolution, but also retrospection and reorganization. I retrieve natural objects abandoned by abstractum and place them into geometric scenes in a surreal way to build the Wonder Land. It also reshapes the forgotten of the original art, releases the naïve and natural nature of painting itself, to feeling the connection between humans and the world.

Wonder Land