Seeing, Feeling & Thinking(16)

Marvelous Table and Bottle
Oil on Linen 91 x 73cm 2006
Private Collection


The air inside a closed sphere such as a rubber ball must be separated from the air outside. But in 1922, the famous “Klein Bottle” proposed by Germany topology mathematician Felix Klein (1849-1925) broke with this phenomenon. The air inside and outside the bottle is interlinked with each other now.

It was Klein’s concept that inspired the artist to complete this painting “Marvelous Table and Bottle” . An aquatic stretches its branches and leaves out off the bottle in order to breathe in a freer manner. Under the red curved table, its legs , because of gravity distortion on the ground, are perpendicular to two different 90 degrees to produce rotation effect, bringing some sense of insecurity.

The dotted pink and blue strokes blend into the rotation of the gravity. And this is the point that makes the table and the bottle look “odd and wonderful”.

“That’s all there is to it!” ,said the artist.

T.Y. Sheng

Seeing, Feeling & Thinking(15)

Triple Whirling Horizon
Oil on Linen 173 x 130cm 2005
Private Collection

Why are we attracted so much to this picture?

It must be these three inwardly curved and interwoven worlds that make this painting “Triple Whirling Horizon” look strange, circling and marvelous. Three worlds ingenuously intersect in triangle form and the connected geometric shaped giant walls are necessary for separating them.

There are several simple objects with the shape of square, rectangle, triangular cone, circle and triangle placed on the red ground to present the gravity, but this area of the picture looks like a lifeless world.

How do you feel about the invertebrate crawling on the right side brown earth? Are these worm-like or amoeba-like animals remind you of "the Proterozoic (Era) ”?

Stones and shrubs spread over with the brooks gurgling through the green world on the upper left of this picture and the vital green field also brings more expectation for life.

Dense cloud layers hang over and through among the triple whirling horizons with the result of different mysterious atmospheres. These horizons cross-link with each other, symbolizing the endless rotation and alternation of universal nature and phenomena.

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing, Feeling&Thinking(14)

Earth Overturned, Varying Gravity
Oil on Linen 136 x 173cm 1995
Private Collection

Macrocosmic theory of relativity tells us: the objects gravities are not only vertical to a single horizon, they must extend opposite towards different directions of the outer space. And when and where these vanishing points end or come together is really a very complicated issue.

At first glance, we can only find two curved horizons in this picture “Earth Overturned, Varying Gravity”. If we look further into right part of it, a third horizon would emerge and goes up outside the frame. Of course, after more precise and continuous observation, we can also figure out another horizon implied in the lower part of this picture. It is clear that the trees on both sides of the road converge on the same horizon at the end, thus demonstrates each object on the ground must have its individual gravity direction.

Mountains rising straight up, trees in full flourish, vehicles traveling, a grange surrounded by grove with indistinct dog barking and people fishing on riversides, all of this rare and marvelous sceneries appear on different horizons, and finally are linked in order by well-rotated tea plantation.

The mountain shadows differ from each other; the reflections on the lake make the gravity directions more distinct; the distant snow-covered mountain range and murmuring streams represent a new season arrival and the cliff is absolutely a spectacular sight never to be forgotten.

Life in this enchanting picture looks full of spring vitality and it’s really and always what people like and expect!

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing, Feeling&Thinking(13)

Double Heaven and Earth
Oil on Linen 73 x 91cm 2006
Private Collection


There’s been a ‘linear space’ image about the universe and not until the 20th century did people realize the physically four-dimensional space and the cosmology based on relativity theory. After that, can people naturally form a picture of this new world in the mind?

Adopting Chinese great philosophers Zhuang-zi and Hui Shi’s viewpoint of ‘vastness without limit’ combined with the contemporary perspective and the breakthrough on illusion picture, painter Hsin-Tien Su has been devoting his life to creating series of this subject, that is, the new curved and cyclic universe images. But finally, what and how can they be presented?

Ancestors in Taiwan believed in ‘Nine Heavens, Nine Earths’, and Wang Chong (Han Dynasty) also proposed the idea ‘the Flat Heaven’, both regarded the heavens and the earths as tectonically flat plates. Wang thought that the plates infinitely extended with heavenly bodies revolving around and moving outward and homeward in long distance. Taiwanese ancestors also considered that the heaven plate began with low rising; one day, a herculean man propped it up with a bamboo pole, making it fly higher and higher as it is today.

The space of cyclic universe results in the arc-shaped horizon lines, and there follows the unceasingly changeable directions of object gravity. The points are ‘What kind of the changes could the horizon lines make in such a space?’ and ‘Could the transformed lines finally intersect with each other?’

Thus, take a look at this picture again! The first circle of horizon line the painter drew constructs the first upper formation world, then the overlapped third, fourth ones should be completed if only the second layer could be formed. The red pavilion poles symbolize the sayings ‘Heaven has four columns’ in Chinese ancient myth ‘Shan Hai Jing’. These red large posts draw to a center accompanied by the scarlet heavens and blue skies, emphasizing the reasonable existence for the arch of the skies.

And it is obvious that the specialty of the whole transition process of these two worlds attracts the viewers in an illusory way. We can also see the semi- abstract drawing techniques and not so scientific perspective laws used on the colorful and overlapping roads and houses scenery.

The double Heaven and Earth is cyclic without any obstructions among it. When universe exists ‘unbounded and yet finite’, then all layers of the worlds inside would mutually surround and interflow, no longer having the endless and unimaginable ‘nihility space’ in people's minds.

And, this is precisely the core of this picture.

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(12)

Gravity Reordered
Oil on Linen 173 x 136cm 2004

A soft spheroid, after being lengthened and reversed, turns a bottle gourd shaped object just like this picture appears. Then creatures popping up along with the variety of the constructions and the interwoven highways on its surface make the gravity phenomena more strange and interesting.

The composition of the blue winding river, the geometry-shaped tricolor countryside and the houses on the banks, the purple mountain ranges, and the inter-island roads and bridges constitutes this magnificent and wonderful bird's-eye view.

The originally downward gravity world gradually changes into an upward one while it comes to the center-section. And you can obviously make out different gravities between the left-side yellow space and the right–side pink world.

What’s the most marvelous point of this picture? I think it lies in the two opposite gravities that are about to confront, to blend and finally be maneuvered into the central transition. Both gravity worlds wonderfully go deep from near into the far and, with the incredible “curved space” concept, present this strongly reversed mysterious picture.

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(11)

Joined Curved Plane
Oil on Linen 173x136cm 2005

The attractive pink nightfall spans horizontally across four semicircle flyover bridges. Going from the distant Taipei 101 Building to the southern Taiwan, there the two big stacks and the upward-curling thick smoke remind the painter of his hometown’s factory, the famous PeiGong Sugar Refinery surrounded by the wide sugarcane plantations.

The boundless blue sky, the Keelung Sea Port and its bustling fish markets give the visitors a warm welcome to do some sightseeing and enjoy the cool sea breeze and rich sea food.

Rising high in the black night sky, two crescents overlook the orange red land, a curved unknown space with some still geometrical objects on it. Encircling around and off the ramp to another world, the travelers can watch the sun setting down the charming mountain GuanyinShan and have birds watching from the purple chessboard-like wetlands.

People roaming about and through such great views on different four worlds must be wide-eyed at the marvelous and incredible universe gravity.

Hail this Cyclic Space painting, the Joined Curved Plane !

T. Y. Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(10)

Between Substance and Vacuity, Being and Nothingness
Oil on Linen 192x257cm 1989

One who can swim among the universal space-time must be able to swim in and out with ease and comfort through any medium, such as the vacuum, the clear water and the hard land.

Turning over from the sea water, the energetic boy with goggles is now swimming towards the fresh water to meet the girl. The mysterious dark brown sky with numerous twinkling stars is half covered with a towering ice cap congealed by the sea water. And the one and only sound filled around the land and the grove beneath the sky is silence.

Look! A cluster of dragon-shaped clouds points its tail at the sea waves in a hilarious way. And the big cloud bank beyond the sea horizon presents a striking contrast to the sailing 17th century's Dutch vessel. In the upper right-handed corner, the upside-down shiny land seems shares the same blue sky with the red-brown seashore. What an amazing scenery the painter created !

These imaginative and creative skies, lands and seas appear to be broken but actually linked in a continuous cycle, thus make the universe a deep illusion and a multi-dimensional fantastic world, a world Between Substance and Vacuity, Being and Nothingness.

T. Y. Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(9)

Green Summer
oil on Linen 136x173cm 2004

Absorbed in computer surfing, swinging on the hammock and climbing playing noisily, the whole family are enjoying their mid-summer time together. With the cool breeze coming far away from the distant blue mountains and the vapor floating across the green hillock, a wandering stream is gently flowing through the golden fields.

The backyard wall miraculously extends in all directions and makes the world high and wide with three different horizon lines. That is, there are three gravitational field worlds outside the lower horizon line and people can see the wonderful scenery through each giant window frame.

This is a kind of formidable tensile force, people would probably be compelled to hold their breath, staring and doubting simultaneously,“How can be able to cause those three worlds to flow across for each other mutually?”

Regardless of the supernatural worlds, the vicinity big tree seems capable to unify the spatial huge contradiction, thus eliminate the viewer’s doubts temporarily.

But, if you’re really interested in this picture, can you stop thinking the variety of possibilities of this marvelous cyclical space?

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing, Feeling & Thinking (8)

Time-space Confusion Over Winter Village
Oil on Linen 192x257cm 1989


In the evening twilight, the sky looks like being occupied by a mass of rocks in geometrical shape. They exist without real volume. Neither can they construct the complete entity nor set the space aside to become the true emptiness.

How weird the surroundings is ! Falling high from above, the net sky, that is, the focus of this picture, was broken apart into several misplaced “frozen ice rocks”( you may also call them “steel plates”). A thrilling fear is coming over the winter village and maybe it will make some spectators feel a little bit creepy.

Behind the Northern European style house stands a frigid zone forest, all surrounded by the endless gloomy wheat fields. Nearby the stockade, the dried-up bushes also appear horribly withered.

Before dinner, the red roofed house is glistening with light; warm but weak, and the setting sun and the squawking crows definitely make the painter to be in a heavier and more fatigued mood. This is also a metaphorical portrait to the painter’s spell of unfavorable fortune in his life.

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing,Feeling&Thinking(7)

Interior with Rotated Gravity
Oil on Linen 130x172cm 2004


Just can’t believe what you see in this picture? How can the intimate family stay at three different dimensions simultaneously? Is there really a mysterious giant torsion among the universe?

Look! The floor where the woman’s feet are placed turns into the wall with windows against her husband! Try to take a look upward now, the ceiling above the gentleman links the beautiful scenery outside just as the lady’s floor does! At this moment, the horizon line breaks into different two!

The morning air is full of eccentric atmosphere despite the strong fragrance of coffee and tea. Was there a quarrel between the couple before? Why does the gentleman keep quiet reading so seriously? The cute cats, staring at the ball, are wondering whether the little boy is throwing it into the air or rolling it forward along the side wall?

Wow~~Look at the twist in the middle of the table! The couple still focuses their minds on their preferences, voicelessly. The boy is in a puzzle when the ball looks like falling gently down to the next floor with zero gravity.

Several spectators in TFAM (Taipei Fine Arts Museum) once talked in soft voice, “Does the painter (the husband) disagree with his wife in a way?” Ha! Sounds very interesting!

Indeed! People especially the family can’t avoid taking a dim view of something. But why not meditate for a while and see the merits of others, not faults? Then, after sunset, there must be no anger and the night will arrive in peace and warmness.

Writer: T.Y.Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(6)

Look Out! Don’t Get Sucked into the Black Hole
Oil on Linen 173x173cm 2006

In telepathy, the panic-stricken mother anxiously rushes to the window, for her little boy is wholeheartedly crawling to the parapet. The entire picture seems leisurely and carefree at first sight, actually, danger threatens everyone on every side.

Summoned by the distant pink vortex off the sky, the little boy is absent-mindedly staring at its slow and mysterious rotating. And he has never realized that the fascinating view is the Black Hole among the universe. Anyone or anything once approaches, he/it will never escape from the peril.

Outside the gate on the steps, the father is whistling home; the bright blue sky and the dark blue sea water behind him are located in another horizon, not in the same one the pink vortex appears. The top right-handed corner is a world without any creatures, the first quarter of the moon rises high in the dark sky giving out its slightest cold light on this miserable lonely planet. On the contrary, the blue ground with yellow sky on top left-handed corner is a space with tranquility and peace.

The geometrical walls interpenetrated in whole picture revolve four different spaces, symbolizing the universal space-time which extends in all directions. These four spaces mutually surround with each other for existence without inside and outside.

Such is the limited yet boundless circulation worldview, isn’t it?

T.Z. Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(5)

Flickering Fractured Landscapes
Oil on cotton 121x121cm 1987

Mountain cliffs? But just resemble !
Clouds? Yet intermixed with seawater !
Sails? However look like candles !
Yes ! They are cliffs ,clouds, candles, and sails !
Around and among the mountain cliffs,
One sail is set into the clouds
While the candle-like other is floating on the seawater.

Writer: Fun-Yu Liu
Translator: T.Z. Sheng

Seeing, Feeling & Thinking(4)

When the Horizon is Circled
Oil on Linen 173 x 136cm 2001

Seeing this painting at first sight, I got great joy from its brightness. It also reminds me of Tibetan Buddhism “Mandala” — Buddhas and Bodhisattvas’ pure land. Both the painting and the “Mandala” have the similar fresh color with atmosphere of mystery and happiness; and the surroundings are beyond imagination.

As far as we know, the universe moves in an elliptic orbit. Based on the clockwise whirlpool way, artist Su Hsin-tien takes sun as the center, grows the world myriad things which we are familiar with, like the mountains, fields, trees, haystacks, roads and vehicles. The most interesting is, that central to the core, individual apex then expends outward.There is no conflict but harmony, all things are mutually interdependent with each other. Actually, this also is a metaphor that all creations in nature are closely linked as a net.

On the limited canvas, Artist Su creates a boundless space with his unique style. Staring at this painting, I cannot help asking “ Where is my standing point? Top or bottom? Left or right? Or the center? Thereupon, the stereoscopic effect then appears. Gradually, my own thought is no longer confined to the canvas. The relationship between the real and the virtual is much far beyond the description.

I greatly appreciate Mr. Su, the artist, and I think this painting definitely lightens people’s minds and beautifies the world.

Writer:Chen Suying
Translator:T.Z. Sheng

Seeing, Feeling & Thinking (3)

Strong Gravitational Field Sucks Away Weak Landscape
Oil on cotton 192x257cm 1989

In an early summer morning, the family members went on a vacation to a wonderland. The real and the virtual interweave miraculously, highlighting the open and wide geographic features of the wonderland. Deeply attracted by the fascinating views, each one walked and watched in breeziness, but they gradually dispersed to quite different directions.

All of a sudden, a strong gravity engulfed the mother, the younger sister and their shepherd dog into a small room. Through crying out for help, they are involved in deep panic and danger. In the mean time, on top of the inclined wall, the elder brother was just bewitched by the enchanted scenes, not knowing what had happened. Only did the father hear the loud cry from the hollow cylinder and was trying to rescue his beloved wife, daughter and their pet dog. The situation appeared to be more and more intense while the dog barking became louder and louder….

By origin, that imaginary mountains, the green fields, the cliffs and the sky mystically intersected with each other, but at present, the middle strong gravitational field has actually sucked away the other weak landscapes. Such an anxious and confused time for the family members is really hard to get over.

It’s absolutely a cyclical space painting like no other, and if there is no scientific knowledge like General Relativity and modern mathematics…etc, how could the painter have these imaginable and incredible thoughts?

T.Z. Sheng

Seeing ,Feeling & Thinking (2)

Autumn Earth Spinning
Oil on Linen 172 x 209cm 1991
Collection of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

An ox–drawn cart with a heavy load of harvest is passing slowly by the thick bosky road in the countryside. Looking back to the way it comes from, one would never imagine where the road begins.

It’s covered with a mist all the way, the layers of mountains welcome the setting sun, but the devil’s smiles in mid-fall will probably make you fall into a state of vague melancholy.

On the right, the sandy-gray seas right behind the mountains, the horizontal clouds floating left then turning upside down around and on the surface of the orange-brown steep cliff , and the big piece of blue sky ( or another cliff top) all make it an amazing scenery like any other parts in this picture.

On the middle top, a brook from the heaven blends and vanishes with the clouds insensibly. The innumerable dark brown earth pillars wind and twist round, echoing the bright U-turn sky with pink clouds. It is definitely the world most beautiful fairyland !

On the top left-handed corner, orange sky covers on the iceberg and the purple blue waters; there are multi-storied white buildings accompanied by. Walking down across the tea garden to the golden culvert, you can see the snowy mountains, a small fall and a calm lake surrounded with silent sounds.

The cicadas are singing more passionately at the time when you bridge over several hillocks and circle back to that thick bosky road in the countryside again. Humming low and deep all the way home, the rider, the old farmer, with pipe lit in his hand, passes over the leafy shade in the pleasant autumn wind.

This is really an incredible virtual meandering around the multi-dimension world !

T.Z. Sheng

Seeing, Feeling & Thinking (1)

Universe Overturned, Dawn and Dusk Swapped
Oil on Linen 136 x 173cm 1997

Imagine how wonderful and comfortable the woman feels while she is reading on the hammock hung between two trees on different horizons!

Playing badminton on the meadow, the family enjoys the immense beauty of twilight hour. It seems that the constant dog barking results from the jumping shadows the players cast.

The boy ridding happily on the bike just returns from the breezy seashore, behind him stands the white summer house with red roof which is a good place to stay during the vacation.

A path through the woods and across the “sky bridge” sinuously comes into a silent space on the top left-handed corner of the picture. The first glimmering of light there shines upon the boundless fields, the stream murmuring a hello to the white birds hovering in the air flows down to the same coral dusk sky.

Isn’t it a beautiful and amazing picture of midsummer time?

T.Z. Sheng