ILLUSTRATED:

Lien Chien Hsing's magic realism paintings reveal the artist's sentimentality towards the lost of traditional values, humanity and nature. Lien's works are often set against a background of ruins and he imbues them with symbols, metaphors, elements in order to hint the motives and purpose behind their creation. His works show his concern for the degradation of the natural environment and reflect his ruminations about civilization and humanity. In this painting, a lizard and a crested serpent eagle are perching on the artist, and next to him is a parrot pecking away on its food. Behind the artist are a pool of spring water and a leopard idly basking under the sun. It seems as though the artist is a guardian of the secret garden in the ruins. A rare self-portrait, the artist appears to be in his youthful years. The paradise, however, is not without threats, as the harmonic scene stands in stark contrast to the factory billowing smoke into the heavily polluted air in the far distance. From the unsettling image one can easily sense the artist's anxiety over the potential disasters brought about by industrial development.