Chen Chi-Hsiang Art Collection: As It Is (2013)

In the new atmosphere of 2013, through objects, he continued to expand the horizons of consciousness and creation. In the solo exhibition "As It Is," a set of clocks titled "One Square Inch" appeared, along with two sets of neon light works, "A Moment" and "A Thread of Sky." One is explicit, the other implicit; both present time differences and distances within space-time, where everything in the present moment of the mind melts into "one." Between appearance and essence, phenomenon and imagery, perception and intuition, time and space, matter and spirit, it highlights the metaphysical dimension of art, awakening the conscious awareness of things as they are.

"A Thread of Sky": Peering from within a grand realm to outside, it presents a world of a thread of sky, pointing out the broad and distant horizon of the uncivilized realm. It metaphorically indicates time and space, suggesting a perception of existence and infinite possibilities.

"A Moment": Through symmetrical pink and blue neon installations resembling two similar forms, it presents rhythmic changes flashing in an instant; "a moment" is but a split second. The ancients considered twelve shi (two-hour periods) as one yun (period), and thirty yun as one hui (era), also implying ancient past times. Clearly, whether past or future, everything exists under this eternal present "moment." Regardless of any situation, state, or space-time, the present is exactly as it is. This "as it is" encompasses all, requiring no comparison, speculation, or imagination. At every such present, existence is thus, originally and completely, describing the natural state of the now.

"One Square Inch": Two side-by-side symmetrical round clocks, the left marked at three o'clock, the right at nine o'clock. The hands at nine and three form a square inch, indicating the spatial-temporal dimensions between his home in Paris and his hometown in Taiwan (a six-hour time difference between Taipei and Paris during the winter solstice), symbolizing the distance and time lag of space-time. However, in principle, here and now, the present site as it is is essentially one, yet contains the time differences, latitudes, and locations of the real world. Clearly, "One Square Inch" symbolizes the "mind." Here, there, here—what converges in the present of the mind is here; here is not there. "Here-now" contains the past and future. Time converging in the mind is timeless. Entering a state of forgetting self, no-self, and blending into one, existing as it is, without duality or distinction, the entire moment becomes perfect and whole.