The reason why Chiharu Nishizawa is getting more and more well-known in China is because of the special-made piano he and Steinway & Sons built together. The piano utilizes his art on the cover. That means the piano becomes a unique piece of art. Because of the high price and the co-work of a famous brand and an artist, it arouses a hot topic in the fashion circle in China. The special-made piano, which is named "The river of the sound”, is designed for the celebration of 10th anniversary of the establishment of Steinway & Sons Japan branch. Chiharu Nishizawa lays a piece of waves representing the blue ocean to interact with his icon-ized mini figures. He uses the water flow as the metaphor of the music flow and shows the elegant rhyme in serenity.

To see the works of Chiharu Nishizawa, we usually see the world of many lives yet with enormous sense of loneliness. Though the white space is left in the screen, and sometimes the white color is replaced with other monochrome, a space without being vacuumed, it is nothing but a virtual world. The people whose faces are blurred are also like symbols of some icons. The cities are like building blocks, the plants are like decorations, the streets are like mazes and the people are like ants who are acting without personalities in it. Everything is icon-ized in the picture. It is like a scene in a video game. Even the picture is indicating some event that is happening right now, lives seem to move on in silence in the huge virtual world of vacuum. Through the paintings of Chiharu Nishizawa, we can realize that when facing lives, human are guided by an invisible force. The regulation must be existing in the universe guiding us. That is the destiny that no one can change no matter how hard we try.

In the extremely flat space, the people in the city wearing the same uniform as if they were chessmen on a chessboard. They are controlled by their fates. This is the inescapable life of modern Japanese in the fast-paced society. There is nothing like the romantic life described in the traditional ukiyo-e. The pictures of Chiharu Nishizawa are the life fables he wrote for nature and human, for the East and the West, for the modern and the ancient, for the spirit and the objects, for wars and peace. From normal social phenomenon to private family life, Chiharu Nishizawa has something to say. Therefore, beneath the beautiful colors of his paintings, each piece has a deep fable in it. These propositions are originally philosophical. However, with Chiharu Nishizawa's arrangement, they are turned into mysterious game scenes which make it hard to understand the ideas of the creators with a simple look.

Chiharu Nishizawa is a master of colors. The colors he uses are splendid yet extremely elegant, old but modern, pleasant and thought-provoking. To put it in a more proper way, he is a magician of colors. Chiharu Nishizawa is a modern Japanese artist, or rather one of the most representative Asian artists. His lines and the colors are oriental. The contents in his works are the reflection of the common memory of economics taking-off – an anxiety that cannot be hidden under the expectation. His works also reflects the modern events which include the Global Climate Conference, the upcoming World's Fair, the military competition, the hegemony of the international policies, the family relationship in the fast-paced society and the artists' anxiety to all kinds of social critiques. All of these have been wrapped under his talented and beautiful sugarcoat of colors.

When getting in & out with the viewpoints of Chiharu Nishizawa, we can find that the most thing he wants to share with the viewers are all kinds of the fables of lives. What is more, under the skin of elegance, there is an enormous power hidden inside the serenity and analyzing the complex philosophy.

Victoria Lu