The Enigmatic "Butterfly Effect Series" (2020) (Gallery Version)

Text and images by Chen Chi-Hsiang. The "Butterfly Effect Series" is an experimental exploratory work this year. Through the butterfly effect, it elucidates a condition where pulling one hair moves the whole body: from seemingly insignificant behaviors and attitudes, chain reactions and cumulative effects arise. It embodies the dramatic interplay of illusion and reality, fantasy and perception, change and constancy, and the virtual and real within existence, questioning the authenticity of existence?

"The Butterfly Effect Series - Illusion of Life" (2020): Returns to the core of 'Mirror Image' creation. 'Mirror Image' began in 2000 at the solo exhibition "Mi's Shared Memory: Intuition and Imagination" at Zhongwei Studio. Fifteen years later, it reappeared during an exhibition at Tainan Dongmen Gallery, continuing to expand upon the facade mirror spatial installation "Did You See?" (2015). This new work consists of five circular facade mirrors placed directly against a white wall. On the mirror surfaces rest several dreamlike, colorful butterflies (adding warmth and saturation to the cold mirrors), while the backs feature a Buddha statue (symbolizing the unchanging essence) and two decorative patterns.

This work is interactive; viewers can rotate it to explore its diverse visual effects. As it turns and as viewing angles change, space and light dance, reflecting multi-faceted scenes and various situations (dancing with light and shadow in transformation). Within the illusory realm of virtual reality, it embodies the sentiment: "All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows, like dew and lightning; thus should one view them."

These five circular facade mirrors can also be placed directly in any scene or space. Depending on the site, they arrange and face different directions, reflecting environmental scenery according to the viewer's angle, transforming the spatial-temporal landscape endlessly like a kaleidoscope. When the mirrors disappear and the butterflies vanish, viewers suddenly find themselves unable to extricate themselves, falling into the dreamlike abyss of time and space, metaphorically illustrating the confusion and delusion of life.