Xiao Chuan

That Space, That Time

For me, pessimistic theories have always appeared so profound.

In such a complicated world, life seems so fragile, it is almost fragile up to the absurd. Living beings are so mean and pessimistic regarding the vast world.
Sometimes you cannot judge if life is worth living and you get caught in contradiction and chaos.
Existence is absurd, and death is real.
Joy is meaningless and suffering is real.

When life is made of suffering, then it is filled with worries and grief, isolation, helplessness, loneliness, indecisiveness and vicissitudes... I want to shake off this abnormal state and get rid of it, I want to get my good mood and clear head back, and let the desire of life fill my empty soul. Upon that I started to try and record these episodes of worry and grief. I chopped up periods of time to freeze the moment.

Perhaps due to our helplessness and resistance when facing death, I attempted to find a way to pursue eternal life, although I know that death is eternal. I cannot change the world. I come to realize, piously and with a newborn¡¯s heart, that, among the fragments of my torn and disintegrated life, there is only this turbid world in which I wander aimlessly without settling down.

In the course of this devout process, I seemed to have abandoned the so-called "artistic feeling for beauty"and this record became the tool of my thinking or the expression of my innermost feelings, which are this aimless wander through a monologue with loneliness and helplessness. Maybe my works show something more absurd than real-life : a person, a dog, a group... They are all telling stories of loneliness and helplessness. Even the air is made of the color of desolation, scarified. How can it be that not everybody feels this pain, the frailty of life and this lack of convictions? Event bright and warm colors cannot soothe this frail life, cannot soothe the desolation, long ago deep-rooted in the depth of my soul.

With the understanding that each person¡¯s life has its own meaning or purpose, I wish I live for Love. Perhaps we don't need to ask the meaning of life, we should simply admit everything that nature entails and welcome joy as well as grief, dissociate reality from life and embrace life closely!

That Space, That Time-01, Xiao Chuan 2007

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