A strange room, seemingly a sports room, is covered “wallpaper” with the texture of celluloid. Nothing was on the floor, except for a phonograph. A recessed space in the room seems like a private living room. Orderly placed on the tatami-style platform are Bauhaus-style bookshelf, dining table and tubular chair. In the dazzling light reflected from the back wall, such a space looks like a mirrored image at the first glance. We could see two girls in almost identical white tank tops and shorts, one leaning against the wallpaper, the other reclining on the tatami platform. They seem to look at each other, but their eyes do not meet. The picture about the Bauhaus School impressed me with the riddling space and figures at first sight. With complex emotion, I “interpreted” it in my painting Bauhaus Girl No. 14.
It also inherits the style of Bauhaus Girl-Room series, which originated from a photography album about Bauhaus female students in early 2020. I was moved and got the idea to depict those women and that era. These paintings are derived from photos, but I want to present the painting look with the unique rhythm and structure of painting.
The room in this painting seems to house everything a person needs: physical training, food supply, mental improvement, artistic cultivation and close relationship. The room can be a world beyond ourselves or a sanctuary within us. The boundary between inside and outside may not exist, for we and the outside world are originally a whole.
—— Chen Ke