Chen Chi-Hsiang Collection: The Original Image Is Like Form (2011-14)

The original image is without form.

The original form is an empty image.

Nothingness holds no wonder.

Without emptiness, there is no form.

All phenomena in the universe are the original image (form).

"Original Image Is Like Form" is a creative term, much like the artist's formal and conceptual creations, which construct poetic meaning, pointing towards the wonder and profundity of life and existence. "Image" and "form" are homophones with similar references, both pertaining to external scenes or things. "Image" refers to shape or appearance, while "form" externally denotes features and internally implies essential meaning. "Original Image" indicates the perceived state of things as they are, seen in the immediate moment of time and space. "Is Like Form" implies a likeness to the suchness and such-like appearance and essence. All existences in the world are images. The myriad phenomena change and transform according to the conditions of time, space, and the shifting circumstances of people, moving among true forms, false forms, empty forms, illusory forms, and real forms. Ultimately, all truth, falsehood, emptiness, and illusion return to "image." Are all phenomena in the universe the original form? Is what exists a fact based on what the eye sees? Or do the imagined and the perceived constitute fact? Are what is thought and dreamed perhaps another level of real image, or another kind of real form?

Then, in today's era of advanced and ubiquitous digital and 3D imagery, where the virtual can be more real than reality, what is truth? All things and scenes involve vision, viewpoint, and perception. Moving from seeing into feeling and experiencing, one realizes the local scenery of life's existence here and now.