Chen Jia-Bang: The Guise Of A Haven: Solo Exhibition

The Guise of a Haven explores how life seeks a place to pause, hide, and coexist in a constantly changing world. This series of wood sculptures centers on the concept of mimicry. It weaves together insects, plants, and everyday objects to create forms that exist between the natural and the artificial. The works respond to states of survival, adaptation, and finding one's place.

Insects mimic plants to evade predators. Plants cling to objects to continue growing. Humans construct safety and a sense of belonging within daily items. In the works, insect bodies merge with leaf veins and branch nodes, while the contours of objects transform into shells, nests, and sheltering structures. Individual boundaries are no longer clear. Instead, the forms reflect interdependent relationships. These shapes do not disappear to disguise themselves. By resembling something else, they find spaces where they can dwell.

Wood retains its natural grain and growth marks, symbolizing the memory of time and nature. Through carving, the material is reconstructed, as if life adapts its form under environmental pressures. The creative process mirrors mimicry-it is not replication, but response; not escape, but adaptation.

The Guise of a Haven does not point to a specific location, but to a state. When boundaries are blurred and identities are fluid, can we exist peacefully without fully belonging to any side? These sculptures stand quietly, like unnamed creatures. They invite viewers to reconsider their relationship with the environment and reflect on the spaces they are seeking-or have quietly established-for dwelling.