After Waking from a Dream

About

Unravelling psychological tension, symbolic castration, and the cyclical nature of desire, Chen’s work navigates the fragile interplay between self-perception and societal constructs. She constructs immersive experiences that confront omnipotence, loss, and identity formation using installation, sculpture, and mixed media.

At the heart of the exhibition are two thought-provoking installations, Nightmare and Edible. Both employ unconventional materials such as sugar, gelatin, and food coloring to render complex psychological and philosophical concepts tangible.

In Nightmare, Chen visualizes unconscious anxieties, forcing a confrontation with the Other and the inevitable dissolution of omnipotent fantasies.

Repeated faceless gummy bears—soft yet consumable—embody the universal struggle with desire, trauma, and symbolic wounds. This piece urges viewers to reconsider fragmented selfhood and the conflict between internal voids and external validation.

Edible extends these themes by juxtaposing partially consumed gummy bears and reconstructed figures, symbolizing the perpetual cycle of dissolution and renewal. Mirrored spatial arrangements reinforce this inescapable psychological and social rhythm.

Through After Waking from a Dream, Chen deepens her exploration of psychological landscapes, inviting viewers to negotiate the boundaries between reality and fantasy, presence and absence, consumption and reconstruction.