Window (2024) is a textile installation that seems as though it’s about to collapse- its structure looks similar to a web and is surrounded by leaves and great shadows allowing the work to be both a part of the scene yet also out of place. The strands of this installation are pulled out of the centre making it as though they are struggling- confronting the viewer. However, on closer inspection one will notice indigo dyes staining the textile – some parts slightly diffused and other parts much more sharp. The natural dye adds a character to the work which resists the more industrialised method of fabric production in a factory.
The fibre is dangled down as a language that is distressed and fragmented while yet ever-present. It is unresolved and it is meant not to be fixed and this is its strength. The window is vulnerable and with it being outdoors- this only exemplifies its vulnerability as it will organically deteriorate. It will become a memory and is unsettled while being held by force but also unwinding. It seems to be more of a space that is not understood yet and is always changing and thus allows the viewer to build upon the narrative that Chen has provided.
Letter (2024) is where the emotions are slowly seeping out of the work – it lies upon a patch of grass where they are drenched with indigo dye and seem as though they have been abandoned and left to decay. The two pieces of the work have torn-up edges and the textile and the text seem to unravel; yet its words blurred out. The fabric is like skin that is damaged- it has cracks; creases and seems to have taken up the damage that stress does to skin.
Furthermore, the work lingers on delayed grief and extends this grief with its awkward silence as it lays upon the ground. The blue pigment stains and bruises the fabric’s surface muddying the text and makes it much more illegible. The fabric is a record of the love then its eventual decay and fraying becomes a betrayal of the love. The repetitiveness of the knitting and its meditative quality is contrasted by the melting ice and wax process. The first process is building while the other destroys. Melded together; they show the uneven nature of emotional distance.