The Riddle of Ahab

Enigma of the Arrival

Because we usually find identifiable images emerging from the surface of her work, her style cannot properly be labeled “abstract.” But it is the sense of emergence, rather than the image itself, which conditions our response. The images in Syau-Cheng’s works emerge from the background as a suggestion: a sense of something lost or only partially recovered from time or the bric-a-brac of memory. Whether an ancient inscription, a petroglyph, or a ghostly presence, the image itself is subordinate to the process of recovery.

A strong component of process – of elapsed time - invests Syau-Cheng’s compositions. This results, in large part, from the tensions which exist on the surface of the work. Here form seems to struggle with formlessness, being with becoming. One component of Syau-Cheng’s art is highly ornamental. She contrives Rococo-like visual rhythms which she then punctuates with strident notes of dissonance. Finely drawn arabesques and graceful calligraphy present a background for the emergence of pure mass in the elemental stages of formation.