ILLUSTRATED:

Lien Chien-hsing Works 1976-1993, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, 1993, color illustrated, p. 69

Caspar David Friedrich, German romantic painter, stated: "Close your eyes of flesh and blood, then you will irst see the views with the eyes of spirit. This will bring light to the world you see in darkness and make you experience the heart from appearance." When construing Lien Chien-hsing's works, we find the vivid, deluxe scenes, similar to 3D computer games, do not touch the core value of our hearts. What associates people to feeling irst and most easily is his visual ironic to the "offense to nature" by human being and his critics towards material civilization. The real purpose of the series in the style "magic realistic painting" created by Lien Chien-hsing since 1990s is to surpass the fences of technique, combine abrupt or abstruse images in routine sceneries with definite description, or add implied symbols and role play in highly realistic scenes, creating a psychological fortune different from real world but extremely rational. This way, more metaphoric humanistic meanings are extended to his works. The incentive, creative interpretations for all the painting works of Lien Chien-hsing have all revealed the historical recall to the post- industrial era in Taiwan. They analyzed the artistic critics and judgment on the ecological, environmental and social issues incurred by development of the material civilization. In "After the Mine Was Abandoned", the image is framed to a mining area, lack of figures. In the 3D-like image containing carts and rails created by the artist, the vivid scene builds up a slightly panic, ridiculous atmosphere.