“Natural and unnatural” is often considered as a value standard for the following values which share opposite meanings: “right and wrong”, “beautiful and ugly”, “appropriate and inappropriate”, which leads to a complex question how people living in this contemporary society to balance the relationship between the artificial things by machine and the handwork, modern and traditional, science and humanity, material and culture. And art is also influenced by this standard.

There are two connotations in “natural and unnatural” 1. “Natural” is a very important concept in Chinese traditional philosophy, for example, it is easy to be found in “Yi Jing (the Book of Changes)” that “Natural and unnatural” is a very important standard for the value of life. 2. Influenced by mass production by machine, the world has become more and more unnatural. Therefore, it has become an urgent need to balance the paradox and symbiosis relation between science and humanity, material and culture, traditional values and modern values, the artificial things by machine and the handwork, natural world and artificial things, rebuilding the world’s harmony.   

In this exhibition, some of the artists show the psychological change due to the man-made things by applying digital technique in their artworks, while others express their own disposition, self cultivation and emotions by plain strokes of brush. Meanwhile, some artists apply modern digital technique together with traditional ways in their artworks, making these two ways mixing together and depending on each other. The artworks created by the traditional techniques focus on the essential things of the world, which shows the artists’ state of mind or philosophy in art. That is why the works appear to be natural, light, imperturbable and unpretentious, as they do not want to impose themselves on the viewer and are bare of any pomposity. Fighting against the superficiality of this world and unaffected by the collapsing value systems, the artists are trying to fix the traditional value in their paintings. According to the Zen Buddhism, two different reactions to the mundane affairs are the results of two different thoughts: enjoying the happiness of earthliness (Ru Shi) and renouncing worldly joys (Chu Shi).The artists’ attitude is similar to Chu Shi, so they take the point of view of a person looking from the sky into a well; not the point of view, which is like Ru Shi, taken by a person looking from within a well towards the sky. Hence the philosophy of life that lies behind any art work is much more important than the art work itself. The artists’ state of mind is like “resting in Tao” and “absolute free soul”, which encourages the artists to rethink and return to the simplicity and naturalism by turning the back on the confusions of the numerous ideologies of the world.    

New science, technology, ethic and environment issues have become the hot issues that the future people need to face. They couldn’t be more interesting and confusing to people than ever before. The tremendous progresses in biotechnology and computer technology cause the” unnatural” phenomenon come into being, deeply changing people’s way of act and value. Then it is a way to imitate and duplicate the natural things. Sigmund Freud’s psychological model has been taken place by new models. The trend of fictitious artificialization and gene’s recombination is spreading with a high speed which beyond people’s imagination. Human beings are surpassing Darwin’s “theory of evolution”, marching into the bold artificialization time. The contradiction between natural and unnatural is a big challenge to our nowadays society and it will soon become a boundary period from the old times to a new era.