Chen Chi-Hsiang Artworks: Dream Within a Dream (2009-14)

Everything is like the first dream. Everything is like waking from a dream. All of it... turns out to be merely consciousness shuttling between reality and illusion.

"Dream Within a Dream" is a series exploring the metaphor of Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly, seeking the true yet illusory existence and state of life. Themes such as flowers in mirrors, water in the moon, spring dreams, and realms-homelands all revolve around the truth and appearance between virtual and real illusions. Like Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly, who is Zhuangzi and who is the butterfly? Are they one, or do reality and dream exist as the same thing, merely in different times and spaces? Existence circulates between consciousness and the subconscious, that is, reality and illusion or imagination. So, is a dream like an illusion? Who knows? Perhaps dreams are the most potential and subconscious activities of life; how can these be called illusions? Between truth and illusion, which is more pertinent to existence?

Dream Within a Dream, like flowers in mirrors and water in the moon, resembles spring thunder, intending to enter the realm-homeland to explore virtual and real illusions. All of this is the spatiotemporal domain of existence. Perhaps the original aspect of life and the underlying facet of a free mind's truth lie here.