Don't Lose to Amusement

By Hsieh SuChen

Accessible to the Ren and Du meridian vessels and the lung, chili pepper is a must-have for those obsessed with it. Too much chili pepper harms the stomach and the nerve, producing hot blood and fiery temper and affecting the behavior. Fast fried on big fire with ginger, garlic and lots of oil, it is rather delicious and enjoyable in the beginning and people tend to eat too much of it, though against the doctrines of the Tao and Zen. In the greatly changing society of today, what one wishes is actually the accumulation of desires, a typical example of which is architecture – everywhere one looks, voracious buildings abound, as if rituals of human-animal love, just like having had too much chili pepper in life.

The spirit of experiment presented in contemporary art is an attitude evolved from traditional matrix. It is not an idea of chance, but a precipitated concept founded on the interactions of contemporary society as expressed by different materials. All the exhibits - the soft mechanical installations, mechanical dry landscapes, 3D printout half-human-half-animal structures and derivatives of the cultural and creative industries - are results of countless experiments. What I like is the dedication without realistic concerns, and what touches me is the experimental process of Cheng Dapeng the architect – making art in the form of architecture.

Life might be busy, but the tree won’t grow a little faster. Some one hundred experiments of work and dreams intertwined, Dapeng has documented with hand drawing on the canvas, with no criticism or complaints. This amusement attitude is one way of the contemporary intellectuals to forget, so why not come for a visit and forget the worries – it is just a bit hot.