Chen Chi-Hsiang Art Collection: Dream Within a Dream (2010)

Everything is like the first dream

Everything is like waking from a dream

All of everything

Just; merely

Consciousness shuttles between reality and illusion

"Dream Within a Dream" is an exploration of a new series, intending to seek the true and illusory existence and state of life through the metaphor of Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly. Themes such as flowers in a mirror and moon in water, spring dreams, and realms-homelands all revolve around the truth and appearance between illusory and real realms. Like Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly, who is Zhuangzi and who is the butterfly? Are the two united, or are existence's reality and dream the same thing, just in different times and spaces? Existence circulates between consciousness and subconsciousness, that is, reality and illusion or imagination. So, is a dream like an illusion? Who knows? Perhaps a dream is life's most potential and subconscious flow activity; how can this be called an illusion? Between truth and illusion, which is more pertinent to existence? "Dream Within a Dream," like flowers in a mirror and moon in water, akin to spring thunder, intends to enter the realm-homeland, exploring illusory and real realms. All of this is the spatiotemporal domain of existence; perhaps the original aspect of life and the underlying face of the free mind and truth lie here.