Chao Er Dai

1977

Well

POST WINGS

The artwork features two boats as the main subject, placed above and below, resonating with each other yet lacking narrative interaction. The boats are unoccupied, neither indicating departure nor return, but quietly docked between the water's edge and their reflections. Zhao E-Dai deliberately contrasts the boats' bodies with red and yellow hues, making them appear isolated and distinct against the broad, tranquil blue background.

The spatial composition of the artwork is flattened into horizontal layers, where the water surface acts like a mirror, with reflections and actual forms nearly equal in weight, blurring the line between reality and reflection. Although the two boats are different in color, they create another layer of visual order within the mirror-like water—reflections reveal both the boat's bodies and faintly unveil the shapes of land and lake, presenting a space that straddles the boundary between reality and illusion. This treatment conjures an almost surreal realm, a non-physical state: the boats seem to float outside of time and space, unbound by gravity and logic.

In this mirrored effect, what is visible may not be merely superficial. The physical forms and their reflections gaze at each other, intertwining the virtual and the real, suggesting that a true "truth" may perhaps exist within the reflection.

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