“The Golden Age” – Irene Chang Online Exhibition
"The Golden Age" refers to beautiful times, the brilliant and colorful people, events, and things in memory. Beautiful moments appear in different stages of life; when remembered, they can make one feel extremely precious and nostalgic. Irene Chang uses bamboo forests, an image exuding graceful spirit, to present the beautiful tracks in memory with "flowing gold," carrying misty water vapor, seeming real yet unreal, still full of vitality.
"Shanghai is full of interesting dynamics, it's a beautiful city, a place where everyone can build their dreams." She observes the characteristics and iterative changes of crowds, everyone's thoughts pursuing refined and beautiful life tastes, full of human dynamics and worldly atmosphere. There's the collision of commercial competition and Chinese thinking; the two banks of the Huangpu River where century-old Ten Miles of Foreign Establishments and modern buildings face each other in succession; and the living districts still preserve plane tree scenery intermingling with trendy lights. Observing these changing forms makes her feel the vitality and lovability of this city.
This series of paintings not only projects Shanghai's colorful living conditions, rich and diverse, but also portrays the acceptance and changes in women's mindset during role transitions. Reflecting on this brilliant time, the years enriched various emotions and perspectives, and nourishment dissolved into blood, all of which are precious and beautiful. As in the "Untitled" series, with her abundant emotions and adventurous spirit, she wants to explore human spiritual essence through the convergence of canvas, colors, and oil paints. Just like the yin and yang in Chinese Taoist thought; softness and hardness, everyone has two faces, the difference lies in different mindsets having different presentations. Irene Chang uses her special way, expressing delicately yet boldly in her works. The painted bamboo forests can explain Irene Chang's various moods, creating a bamboo forest for her soul to place her true self.
Looking back at past years with a pure heart, she uses subtraction to highlight the main philosophy, "Less is More." When complex themes are removed and more breathing space is given, everything will return to essence, paying more attention to the original inner appearance. The coexistence and alternation of the city's classical and modern scenery, like an art creator, with the transformation of different life roles and the mindset of letting go at any time, allows innovative breakthrough steps to originate from the most fundamental love and nourishment.
In the series of "The Golden Age," Irene Chang's vibrant and playful personality is also integrated. She is not limited by traditional Chinese gongbi painting layout, yet is deeply influenced by it. Unlike ordinary bamboo forests, her bamboo forest series is often full of vitality. Western colors and techniques in the paintings also interweave and collide to convey her unique personality. Looking closely at her works, between traditional gongbi bamboo leaves and freely splashed colors are hidden partially figurative birds. Free and expressive, detailed gongbi technique, all appear simultaneously in the paintings, not all details are obvious at first glance. You cannot define whether it's abstract painting or gongbi technique. She integrates everything into life, like gifts that life brings, which cannot be categorized or predicted. The birds' singing postures make the vitality in the paintings more vivid, presenting life's dynamics more three-dimensionally in the paintings. Being "suitable for both movement and stillness" is like Irene Chang, nourished by multiple cultures, integrating different textures and styles from East and West, achieving subtle harmony.
She is just so different, and this difference is truly present in her paintings, displayed before everyone's eyes, unfolding her most brilliant "Golden Age"...
