Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

The 7th Nominee's Interview 1: Jun-Jieh WANG "Project David III: David's Paradise-A Solo Exhibition by Jun-Jieh WANG"

Artist Jun-Jieh WANG's solo exhibition "Project David III : David's Paradise" at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum  from September 27 to November 16, 2008 is nominated for a 2008 Taishin Arts Award. In this interview, Wang discusses his work and the importance of contemporary art.                      

Contemporary art is closely related to our living environment and experience, especially in the present digital age with its free flow of information, but it also makes our understanding of information more complicated. I get my ideas from my experience in and exposure to different fields, whether it is of an academic, informative or recreational nature; however, the important thing is how I translate it into the language of visual art.

My creative concept is generally based on structured research, which only yields a result after lengthy consideration and planning.  It does not come from a single experience, whether visual or aural. I'm not influenced by any particular artist. What influences me is the accumulation of experience and knowledge, that is, a context, especially a historical context. For instance, each period and stage in the history of art or the development of contemporary philosophy and ideas is important. Naturally they also affect my thinking.

Each of my works takes about one to two years to complete, and includes the process of planning, finding the funds and the actual production. Sometimes the execution of a work and its exhibition are two different processes. In the case of the work nominated for the Taishin Arts Award, the film production took more than a year and additional time and money were spent on the preparations for the exhibition. 

My nominated work Project David III: David's Paradise is a five-screen synchronous projection with sound. The work uses a precise exhibition format to correspond to the ideas that it tries to express, such as the arrangement of the screens on different planes, the time lag between the projection on each screen, the control of the sound in space, the relationship between the wall color and space etc. The aim is to create a close and yet open relationship between viewer and work, in order to generate a new experience of visual communication.

During the two years of its making, there were numerous technical problems of shooting with high-definition digital video to overcome. The surrealistic scenes in the video were shot in a constructed set in a studio following a meticulous shot breakdown, and altered with digital special effects in lengthy post-production work.

These technical tasks are not just the basis of the piece, they are also key to the conversion of experience into artwork, to the question of "conversion" and "vocabulary." Apart from responding to the contemporariness of video language with precise conceptual expression, there is a quest for the essence of art, in addition to resolving questions of medium, form and technique.

Rather than telling a story, my work seeks to reveal the indescribable, abstract and subtle feelings at the bottom of people's hearts. By using the rhythm of images and symbols to create a new visual perception, as well as interact with viewers' experiences, my work attempts to convey the ambiguity and uncertainty of the co-existence of spirit, soul and body, while exploring themes of  memory, fear, desire, time and space.           

----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Inerview 3: Tien-Chang WU "Shock.Shot"

Artist Tien-Chang WU's solo exhibition "Shock ·Shot" at Main Trend Gallery from November 15 to December 13, 2008 is nominated for a 2008 Taishin Arts Award. In this interview, Wu discusses his art, aging and Taiwanese culture.

When I turned fifty, I shifted from big issues such as politics to explore my early childhood memories, as these memories appear more important than ever before. In line with my consistently long-held view, the ideas of my artworks mainly come from Taiwanese beliefs.

People living in Taiwan firmly believe that a complete life is composed of "hun' and "po."  "Hun" refers to a soul, which is so spiritual that it is regarded as thought and memory. "Po" means a body, a symbol of material, and can also be defined as human organs. It is thought that each person has three souls and seven bodies. Upon the moment of death, the soul and the body will be forced apart. The living has both soul and body, while a zombie has only a body, no soul and a ghost has only a soul, no body. Existing among the living, zombies, and ghosts is a gray area that lasts seven to forty-nine days. After forty-nine days, reincarnation will begin. Over the span of reincarnation, the dead are obsessed with the mortal world. This sentimental attachment to the mortal world is also a consistent theme in my artworks.

I love watching acrobatics, magic and circus shows, as the costume and performances seem glamorous, but there are also some hidden dark, rotten, and dead elements. I like this dramatic juxtaposition and I use such striking contrasts: the superficial and hidden, the real and unreal, or fact and fiction to explore the spiritual dimensions of human life, to continue trying to translate the untranslatable, and to express weirdly ambiguous aesthetics.

I really enjoy seeing movies. In fact, my ideas are mainly influenced or inspired by some film directors, especially David Lynch, Peter Greenaway, and Shūji Terayama because their films involved the real and unreal, as well as the human nature and the subconscious.

My way of working includes set-up photography in which I am like a film director in control of the scenes, models, costumes, props, and settings. In order to make my pictures tell a story, I require that everything be matched exactly. This approach involves the combination of photography and computer. For one photographic work, I typically shoot 50-70 snapshots. Then I tried a variety of functions of the computer, and these shots were broken into small pieces, deformed, and then reshaped. I made use of the concept of painting to connect these shots seamlessly and precisely.

I rely heavily on computer manipulation of the images, and the heavy modification of my photographic works makes them almost like paintings, including the composition and all the hues. With my work, I ask if the concept of "time" that is recorded by a camcorder flows freely, can a camera capture, freeze, or seal "time" into the image? In addition, what is the real nature of photography in contemporary art?

My artworks are deeply rooted in Taiwanese hybrid culture. Accordingly, I hope to stimulate viewers to ponder a serious, important question – as the term "globalization" becomes a hot topic, making the whole world nearly homogenous, is it possible that locally developed art simultaneously produces a unique Taiwanese style?

----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 4: Yu-Cheng CHOU "Superb Superficialness - A Solo Exhibition by Yu-Cheng CHOU"

Yu-Cheng CHOU "Superb Superficialness - A Solo Exhibition by Yu-Cheng CHOU"

Yu-Cheng CHOU's solo exhibition "Superb Superficialness" was organized by Galerie Grand Siècle and co-organized by Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture. Chou presented his non-narrative video installations, video works and images produced since 2005. Here, he discusses his art and his influences.

My art focuses on the criticism of images in mass media. We're bombarded with digital imagery everywhere we look: the subway, the newsstand, just about any public space. In fact, digital imagery plays such a dominant role in our life that we barely even question it. It is this unwavering acceptance to such imagery that I explore in my work.

I would even venture to say that today's digital imagery that surrounds us has become a modern landscape. Of course, it is different from the natural landscape of sky and trees, but this imagery alters the way we perceive the world. I'll give you an example of this. My recent video Woods III shows a broad expanse of woods, with the trees swaying gently in the breeze. When you watch it, it looks like I filmed a real forest somewhere. However, this is not a film of a real forest; it is a computer-generated 3D animation. The work shows us how unreliable our sense of sight is, and also shows us the complexity of our sensory experience.

For my Taishin-nominated work Superb Superficialness there were a number of issues I tried to get across to the viewers, to let them think about the issues connected between different works, while also thinking of the issue of a single piece. I only showed works made after 2005.

Before the year 2004, I paid more attention to marketing and advertising of consumer products, plus the intention behind overall consumerism structure. The way consumerism works in our society is fascinating and gave me lots of ideas for my work. When I walk past a shop window, glance at a TV commercial, look as a supermarket flyer, many ideas will start to generate in my mind. My art is mainly based on commercial icons and my ideas are easily spawned from everyday lives and daily current events.

Then after 2005, I looked into a wide range of sources that included fashion, advertising, traditional paintings, animation, manga, and politics. I used media such as film, animation, photography, installation and painting for my post 2005 works. The compositions and installations of these works are usually connected by transformations between all these various issues, and this is what I regard as the main content and style of my work.

My typical process of working, from start to finish, is that I first try to find the appropriate media and its potential originality (comparing to my existing work). After the initial completion of the work, I will consider how to transform those digitalized works to the exhibition venue, usually about issues and style between the space and work.   

One of my artistic influences is contemporary artist Guillaume Paris who is also a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, where I received my Post-Dîploma. He had been guest artist at National Taiwan University in 2007. He uses a wide range of media and his work talks about all the things that touch us on a daily basis.

Artist Yu-Cheng CHOU's website: www.yuchengchou.com

----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 5: Ta-Chien PAN "Flashover-A Soloshow by Ta-Chien PAN"

Ta-Chien PAN "Flashover-A Soloshow by Ta-Chien PAN"

Artist Ta-Chien PAN's solo show titled "Flashover" was exhibited at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts from May 16 to June 29, 2008. In this interview, PAN discusses his art and multi-culturalism.

I was born in Hong Kong, and I have studied in Taiwan and France. I speak several languages, but all with an accent. My whole family settled in Hong Kong and some of them are living in China. I live in Taiwan and have had Taiwanese nationality for over 20 years. I read the news from all over the world in order to know how my family and my friends are. So I guess I live sincerely as an attitude, and I pay attention to my life; this provides a position to get something else called the " idea" in my works.

When I want to do a work, I observe the world news, especially the media news in the channels from the overseas. I will compare that at the same time with the media of Taiwan and the media from the other countries. I like to compare the great events that happen in the world and the main subjects concerned by the Taiwanese media.

The news media is a big inspiration for my work. The visual images, films and the news footage also help me make a comparison to know the main values the people who live in this island have.

My typical process of working is methodical and rational. I collect newsworthy images from the computer, and I also shoot my own images.

It's hard to say who my influences are. However, I am deeply interested in the global and local tension of identity and power relationships, so I would have to take some philosophers into consideration: Nietzsche, because he discussed the real freedom of mankind, Baudrillard for his writings about the simulacrum and of course Foucault for his work on authority and the forming of power of our society.

For my Taishin-nominated work, my exhibition title Flashover refers to the physical phenomenon of inflammable objects burning in a closed fire when the temperature reaches a critical mass. Mexhibition wanted to show how disparate things, if put under certain conditions, could all burn. My installation at the Kuandu Museum was quite large and included objects from the middle-class modern home such as a bathtub, sofa and table lamps that were arranged like a living space in the dimly lit gallery space.

I also had six projectors and two small TV sets that kept displaying eight short video clips of model houses with their perfectly pristine interiors. One projection filled the empty bathtub that stood in the center of the space. The flickering images of the dream home were then interspersed with actual war images from Iraq. The nice quiet home, the perfect peaceful home is then assaulted by the horrors from the outside world. While watching the images, viewers will also hear the songs of Jihad from Islamic countries. This combination of the banal with the tragic and the dream world mixed with the harsh reality is the flashover point. Today's world with all its various countries, cultures, politics, viewpoints and religions may just ignite one day.

----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 6: Taiwan Field Factory(Curator "Art Installation in Tree Valley Park's Public Space")

Taiwan Field Factory(Curator) "Art Installation in Tree Valley Park's Public Space"

Taiwan Field Factory's "Art Installation in Tree Valley Park's Public Space" opened in Tree Valley Park, Sinshih Township, Tainan County in July, 2007 and is nominated for a 2008 Taishin Arts Award. Here, the group discusses their project and public art in southern Taiwan.

We formed our group Taiwan Field Factory (TFF) in October 2004. In TFF, we work as curators and organizers rather than as artists. We help people get involved in local cultural and ecological events, and we host various training programs for young people who are interested and committed to participate in preservation works. We executed the Kio-A-Thau Artist-in Residency Program in Kaohsiung, sponsored by the Kaohsiung City Culture Bureau, and which we currently operate as a gallery and public space.

Our Taishin-nominated work Public Art in Tree Valley Park is located in the world’s first industrial area established specifically for the production of LCD-TV. The corporation owner, the Chi Mei Group wanted to create an ecological landscaped park with public art. We selected 22 various art works to help beautify the park and create a pleasant environment for the local community. We also held workshops and seminars to build bridges between artists, employees and the local residents. We felt that Tree Valley Park should be developed as a cultural property and public space for the community, so instead of professional gardeners planting mature trees, we had the local residents planting small trees.

During the work, we saw a lot people from diverse sectors. From the beginning of the public art project, we worked intuitively of course. But once starting, the work became well-researched as it entailed lots of discussions and huge problem-solving. Whether our process was intuitive or well-researched, it all relates with what we have done in the Kio-a-Thau Sugar Refinery during the past 14 years. So in that regard, we were experienced in working with lots of different interest groups and knowledgeable in how to make the project a success.   

In this work, culture is brought to a new high-tech industry zone. Visual imagination exists as well as aural imagination. The stark contrast between a new high-tech industry and a 4,800 year-old archaeological site turns out to be our most important issue. To face the heritage of Taiwan or to face what we call "civilized modernity" became a criticism of the project. Obviously we had to find a way to appease both sides, that is, to protect and preserve the ancient history while also making the project contemporary.

For our way of working, we have to gather all information and deal with issues that we really care about. Then, we will discuss all possibilities though the curatorial meeting. It is very important that people (the workers, the old residential community, the owner, landscapers and artists) and place (ecology and archeology concerns) will be slowly coming together though participation and dialogue.

One of the most interesting and exciting things about the site is that we could visit our ancestry. This is an archeological site 4,800 years old. We saw the bones and pottery remains of this ancient culture. It was really a big shock for us to encounter a culture we didn't really know, yet, these were our ancestors and we were born from them. We saw what they ate, how they lived, and what they believed in this old land. Many of the chosen artworks reflect the are's rich aboriginal history.

 -----As told to Susan KendzulaK

The 7th Nominee's Interview 7: Chun-Hsien WU "Double C Reflex"

Chun-Hsien WU "Double C Reflex"

Choreographer Chun-Hsien WU created "Reflex" which was performed by his dance company Double C at the Experimental Theatre on May 16, 2008, and is nominated for a 2008 Taishin Arts Award. Here, Wu discusses his new work and his creative process.

My creative process is quite straight-forward. When I begin a new work, I first set a basic concept. This concept contains many questions. It is this set of questions that gets me started on my research. This way of working then produces many possibilities and movements, of which, I then put all together. By setting a theme first, I can then find specific ideas, certain movements, and of course, the appropriate music of which I put all these elements together. Through this process, there is some modification and improvements are made.

The ideas for my dances cook in my daily life; I keep them in my mind all the time from what I to do and find them in my daily life, sometimes I do research from books too. I studied ballet, modern dance, and learned the refined and graceful movements of both the Peking opera and of Tai Chi Chuan. I studied Tai Chi with Master Wei HSIUNG. I also worked with Hwai-Min LIN when I was soloist at the Cloud Gate Dance Company from 1994 to 2000. All these experiences of how to move the body through space informs my work.

I choreographed Reflex in 2006. It was performed by four female dancers from my dance company Double C: I-Fen LIN, Fa-Hsuan CHEN, Chrystel GUILLEBEAUD, and Anne JUNG.

The dance was inspired by my newborn son. I was fascinated by the movements of my baby boy, and by small children, in general. Their behaviour and reactions to their surrounding environment seem instinctual, like reflexes. The human body is equipped with a protection-movement mechanism, our reflexes. Those behavioural sciences include movements which entirely escape our conscious control, and are governed by our nervous system.

In this project, I was researching the field of suspense and tension between the enactments of instinctive reflexes on the one hand, and learned movements on the other. As we get older, our movements are acquired as we are taught how to respond to our outside world. By contrast, I really admire the freshness that small children have in response to their environment and was inspired to put that in my work.

Reflex's simple concept conveyed indirectly through the dancers' movements is to remind ourselves to be fresh to life like a newborn, while the core concept is the tension between instinct and learned reaction. The dance features original ideas and movements derived from daily life transformed into poetic dance movements.

The music was created by Christoph IACONO especially for this dance. It included my son's voice and the dancers' voices set to a dreamy-type score. Costumes by Eva Droste-Wagner and lighting by Jens Piske included the dancers' white costumes against a black light and minimal stage which set a strong emotional tone.

Lastly, since I live in Germany, I didn't know anything about the Taishin Art Awards until they informed me. I found it is really great how it works for this prize, and how they choose and support the artists in Taiwan.

----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 8: Shu-Yi CHOU "Visible City, People Filled with Air"

Shou-Yi CHOU "Visible City, People Filled with Air"

Shu-Yi Chou's dance titled "Visible City, People Filled with Air" took place on February 21, 2008 at the Taipei Artist Village and is nominated for a 2008 Taishin Arts Award. In this interview, the young dancer/choreographer discusses his work and how he finds inspiration in daily life.

I had been choreographing since 2003. My first works were selected by National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center's New Idea & Dance Showcase. I wrote the project by myself. At that time I was only 19, so soon after that I started my choreographer's trip. I was very lucky; I worked with several dance companies: the Kaohsiung City Ballet, Assembly Dance Theatre, and Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company. Besides working with different companies, I try to work with diverse artists such as sound artists, and visual artists. Collaborating with other artists and dancers is fun and satisfying. Yet, I like to work alone too. For me, I need both situations: solo work and with other dance companies, because it is such a different experience.

In 2005, I was invited to be the creative dancer and choreographer of the new company Horse Dance Company. In 2007, I applied for a Taipei Artist Village Residency. My TAV residency helped me focus on returning to my body, and to begin exploring physical spaces with my body.

This year, I will take a break from choreography and leave Taiwan for 8 months to think about what I will do after and think about how I can continue my solo and group work. Fortunately, the Taishin Arts Award nomination gives me great courage to continue, as I am the first independent choreographer to be nominated. However, my nominated work required twelve dancers, who are all freelance.

I have too many artistic influences! In this work, I'm inspired by the city, plus we are inspired by each other. When I first start to choreograph a piece, my initial idea is not visual, but formed gradually. For this work I began with these thoughts: Why do people move around the city? Why do people exist? The being of life can be seen and can be unseen, moving, with no sign of stillness. I see the city. I see the air of people moving. Traveling along the structure of this building, we discover the journey of life. Exploring along the way towards the sky, it is the journey of birth to rebirth. The way people grow is like a structure being built. After the building is completed, a new life would move in and start living. As the building started to be filled by life, it would also be occupied with the boundaries and pressures that life brought along.

I began exploring spaces with my body and discovering the limits and energy from various surroundings. This was how my work at TAV came into being. Accompanied by music from renowned American composer Steve Reich, I experienced the velocity of life. The dancers started from the garden on the first floor of TAV, and moved into the elevator. The audience followed the dancers to the hallway on the third floor. Finally, they walked up a flight of stairs and reached the rooftop and the open sky. The city, Taipei, then became the backdrop of life. We flew out and continued our journeys in searching for a greater future.

-----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 9th Nominee's Interview 9 : National Chinese Orchestra "The Legendary Diva of the Taiwanese Opera Chiung-Chih Liao and NCO "

Chiung-Chih LIAO, the Legendary Diva of the Taiwanese Opera and National Chinese Orchestra

National Chinese Orchestra performed "Chiung-Chih Liao, the Legendary Diva of the Taiwanese Opera and NCO" on November 2, 2008 at the National Concert Hall. NCO's Music Director Yi-Ren WEN and Director Chun-Fang TAI speak in depth about their Taishin-nominated work.

Music Director Yi-Ren WEN: In 2008, I humbly accepted the role of the music director for the National Chinese Orchestra (NCO). I decided to take NCO out of its conventional past to lead it to a brand new path. Yet, I needed to renovate Chinese music, specifically Taiwanese opera, to keep it modern and fresh without losing its wonderful tradition.

I've chosen to do a Taiwanese opera production. What can make Taiwanese drop whatever they are doing just to watch the performance of it? Yes, we've all grown up with Taiwanese opera that it is coursing in our veins. My initial concept was to create infinite possibilities for the future from the most familiar thing to the local audience.

Compared to Western opera, traditional Taiwanese opera has a weaker presentation on the element of music. It's the same issue with Peking Opera. They are generally referred to as the "drama in tunes," instead of the "tunes with drama," because both tend to focus more on the acting than on the music. In order to strike a balance between both the drama and the music, I apply the form of a "music drama." I asked the composer to rearrange traditional tunes, put in newly composed songs, and to increase the "volume" of music. After countless communications with the composer and the director, we finally reached a consensus. The result is a Taiwanese music drama as a holistic performing art, giving considerations to both visual and acoustic effects, instead of laying particular stress on one over the other.

Director Chun-Fang TAI: When I conceive a creation, a picture appears first, intuitively; then, I would rationally analyze it, and preserve it, if it is right. Once I am sure of the theme to be expressed by a work, I work, targeted, on the space-time configuration on the stage. Generally, I don't mull over configurations in a linear way, rather, I do it in a 3-D way, in which the elements are laid out, patched or contrasted, as in an architectural engineering. So, I describe my working process as "building a house." I expect my works to emanate a kind of 3-D, poetic atmosphere, not only to provide the audience room for interpreting freely, but also to make the performance on stage to breathe with real space-time during its delivery.

Chiung-Chih Liao, the Legendary Diva of the Taiwanese Opera and NCO emerged in my mind as an image that juxtaposed space and time: a 74-year-old Chiung-Chih LIAO combs her 20-year-old mother's hair, while this 20-year-old mother is combing young Chiung-Chih's hair. This picture contains the daughter's growth as well as the affection for her family member, as combing hair epitomizes the affection between mother and daughter: young Chiung-Chih longs for her mother's love, imagining her mother combing her hair; and old Chiung-Chih, in turn, combs her mother's hair, soothing her sadly early-deceased mother, as she has great persistent strength despite various hardship through her life.

This production is considered, by many, a multi-field work; however, due to the use, by transforming, of many abstract representational skills in operas, this work was able to obtain freedom throughout the jumping space-time scenes to become a fully integrated opera.

-----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards 1st to 4th Quarter Nominees

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards - Nominees in the First Quarter

Category: Visual Art    Jan. 01 - Mar. 31, 2008

Dance of Dotted Lines - Hai-ru Tsai's Solo Exhibition by/ TSAI, Hai-Ru

Flashover - A Solo Exhibition by Ta-Chien Pan / PAN, Ta-Chien

COLD Q2 / SU, Yu-Hsien (Curator)

Have You Eaten Yet？2007 Asian Art Biennial / National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art

Category: Performing Art    Jan. 01 - Mar. 31, 2008

<RZ> Roberto Zucoo / Creative Society Roberto Zucco, Director: WANG, Chia-Ming

<37 Arts> / LAFA Dance Theatre

2008 Spring Riot <Song of the Birds> / Cloud Gate 2

Music Theatre <The Lost Kingdom> / Academy of Taiwan Strings

<The Straw-man and Little Sparrow> / Artistic Director & Producer: HUANG, Chun-Ming

<Copenhagen> / M.O.V.E. Theatre group

<Percussion and Friends> / Ju Percussion Group

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards - Nominees in the Second Quarter

Category: Visual Art    Apr. 01 - Jun. 30, 2008

Landslides / CHANG, Li-Yeh

Beyond 20 Degree Celsius - Exhibition of "Room-temperature Luminescence" form Taiwanese Contemporary Imaging Art / SHIH, Shu-Ping (Curator)

A Kaleidoscopic View : Reinterpretations of Taiwanese Folk Images and Designs / HUANG, Wen-Yung (Curator)

The Shin Leh Yuan Art Space 10th Anniversary Exhibition - Eternal Advantureland / HUANG, Hai-Ming (Curator)

Lacking Sound Festival 2008 / Sheng Ti Kong Jian

Good Gangsters / LU, Esther (Curator)

Taiwan and Okinawa international art festival /  HUANG, Lan-Ya, CHIU, Kuo-Chun,  CHEN, Yi-Chang, HUANG, Chien-Hua and company

Category: Performing Art    Apr. 01 - Jun. 30, 2008

<Hsu Yen-Ling ×Sylvia Plath> / Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group

<The Classic of Mountains and Seas> / Golden Bough Theatre

Dancing in Spring 2008  <Christian Rizzo  & Dance Forum> / Dance Forum

<Scener ur ett aktenskap> / Off Performance Workshop

<I Hope This Letter Brings You Happiness> / Off Performance Workshop

<Cheng Cheng-Kung with Full Force> / HoLo Taiwanese Opera Troupe

Dancing in Spring 2008 <Reflex> / Double C

Dancing in Spring 2008 <1957A.D.> / Neo-Classic Dance Company

<Visible City> / CHOU, Shu-Yi (Choreographer)

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards - Nominees in the Third Quarter

Category: Visual Art    Jul. 01 - Sept. 30, 2008

Two-Person Exhibition by Michael Lin & Heidi Voet / Michael Lin and Heidi Voet

David Project Ⅲ <David's Paradise> / WANG, Jun-Jieh's Solo Exhibition

The Art of Mortal Apparatus / HUANG, Hsin-Chien's Solo Exhibition

Superb Superficialness / CHOU, Yu-Cheng's Solo Exhibition

Pen Walking / SHI, Jin-Hua

You to Be / CHEN, Song-Jei's Solo Exhibition

The Double Flame / CHEN, Hui-Chiao's Solo Exhibition

HUNG, Su-Chen's Solo Exhibition / HUNG, Su-Chen

2008 Taipei Digital Art Festival <TRANS> / Etat Lab

Shadowless / LIN, Guan-Ming Solo Exhibition

 Found Me / LIN, Ping

Category: Performing Art    Jul. 01 - Sept. 30, 2008

La Boîte / Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company

<Othello>  / Godot Theatre Company

An Obituary Written by Everybody/ Short One Player

2008 Taipei Fringe Festival <Anger> / Producer and Actor: KAO, Chun-Yao and CHENG, Yin-Chen

<The Sky Crisis> / The Party Theater Group

<Tribute to Nan-Chang Chien> / Taipei Philharmonic Chorus

<Dimmer> / CHEN, Wu-Kang and YEH, Ming-Hwa (Choreographer)

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards - Nominees in the Fourth Quarter

Category: Visual Art    Oct. 01 - Dec. 31, 2008

Home: Taiwan Biennial 2008  /WANG, Chia-Chi Jason (Curator)

Winter feather. Spring Snow / YU, Wen-Fu

Taipei Biennial / HSU, Manray and Vasif Kortun (Curator)

CtrlZ / Jian, Tzu-Chieh (Curator)

Solo Exhibition by Peng Hsien-Hsiang / PENG, Hsien-Hsiang

Wu Tien-chang's Solo Exhibition / WU, Tien-Chang

City．Theater - Solo Exhibition by Lu Hsien-Ming  / LU, Hsien-Ming

2008 Taiwan International. Video Art Exhibition / HU, Sean C. S and CHEN, Yung-Hsien (Curator)

Tree Valley Park

Blink / Jin-Zhi Gallery

2008 Kaohsiung Iron & Steel Sculpture Festival / CHEN Kai-Huang (Curator)

Cheng-Ming Lee's Solo Exhibition of Color Ink Paintings / LEE, Cheng-Ming Jimmy

Category: Performing Art    Oct. 01 - Dec. 31, 2008

<The Pavilion of Praying to the Moon> / Taiwan BangZi Company

<Listen To Me, Please!> / Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group

<The Daylight at the Dark Night> The Hatch / Drama Club Theater and RUKADEN

<Fable To Be or Not To Be> / M.O.V.E. Theatre

<Lu Xun 2008> / Body Phase Studio

<The Village> / Performance Workshop Theatre Taiwan

<Bones> / Horse Dance Theatre

Tong / Capital Ballet Taipei

<In Memory of Memories>/ Dance Forum Taipei

Debut of WCdance  <Small> / WCdance

<45 Solo, Wu I-Fang>  / Wind Dance Theatre

<Death and Love of My Mother: The Reminiscence of the Diva Daughter> / National Chinese Orchestra

<Percussion Happens Daily> / Ju Percussion Group

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards - Nominees from Call For Entry

Category: Visual Art

Homelandscape II -- His Death / LIU, Ho-Jang

snowWHY / WANG, Tsen

Category: Performing Art

Diving in the Moment / Mobius Strip Theatre

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards was awarded to the best visual and performing arts in Taiwan for the year 2008. The award ceremony took place on May 2, 20

The prestigious annual prize recognizes the best of Taiwanese visual art and performing art. Besides the Performing Arts Award and the Visual Arts Award, each worth NT $1 million, there is the Jury's Special Award for NT $300,000. The Taishin Arts Awards ceremony will take place on May 2nd, 2009 at Taishin Tower.

The 5 finalists for the Visual Arts Award are:

 "Project David III: David's Paradise-A solo exhibtion by Jun-Jian Wang" Jun-Jien WANG; "Superb Superficialness" Yu-Cheng CHOU; "Flashover-A solo-show by Pan ta-chien" Ta-Chien PAN; "Shock Shot" Tien-Chang WU and "Art Installation in Tree Valley Park's Public Space" Taiwan Field Factory.

The 10 finalists for the Performing Arts Award are:

"Chiung-Chih Liao, the Legendary Diva of the Taiwanese Opera and National Chinese Orchestra" National Chinese Orchestra; "Ju Percussion Group Winter Concert 2008-Percussion Happens Daily"  Ju Percussion Group; "The Sky Crisis" the Party Group; "Hsu Yen-Ling x Sylvia Plath"  Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group; "Listen to Me, Please" Shakespear's Wild Sisters Group; "Fable to be, or not to be" M.O.V.E. Theatre; "The Village" Performance Workshop; "Double C "Reflex"" Chun-Hsien WU; "Visible City, People Filled with Air" Shu-Yi CHOU,and "Surround" Capital Ballet Taipei.

The Taishin Arts Awards exhibition opens on April 25 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei and will feature the work of all the finalists who were shortlisted by a local jury. The Taishin Art Foundation nurtures the arts and works within the art community to bring greater understanding of the arts to the public.

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards Winners Announced!

The 7th Taishin Arts Awards was awarded to the best visual and performing arts in Taiwan for the year 2008. The award ceremony took place on May 2, 2009 at the Taishin Tower.

The international jury included: Tai-Song CHEN Art Critic (Taiwan); Du HUANG Senior curator, Beijing Today Art Museum (China); Christiane PAUL Adjunct curator, New Media Arts of Whitney Museum of American Art (USA); Yu-Pin LIN Associate Professor of Drama Department of Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan); Liuyi LI Director/Playwright, Beijing People's Art Theatre (China); Joseph SEELIG Director, London International Mime Festival (UK); Hiroko NISHIMURA Producer, Tiny Alice Theatre / The Asia Little Theatre Exchange Network (Japan); and Anita MATHIEU Director, Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales, Seine-Saint-Denis (France).

The prestigious annual prize recognizes the best of Taiwanese visual art and performing arts. Besides the Performing Arts Award and the Visual Arts Award, each worth NT $1 million, there is the Jury's Special Award for NT $300,000.

The winner for the Visual Arts Award is Jun-Jieh WANG (王俊傑) for his installation David Project III：David's Paradise "whose sophisticated visual language does not just pursue an aesthetic of technology, but rather emphasizes the service of technological methods to the needs of the concepts of art."

The winner for the Performing Arts Award is Capital Ballet Taipei's Surround, (台北首督芭蕾舞團 ) "a powerful, contemporary, high quality dance production. It explores the reality of life in today's world, the place of the individual in society, his isolation, self-doubt and need to communicate."

The Jury's Special Award went to Tien-Chang WU's Shock˙Shot (吳天章) where "perfection and imperfection, as well as, classical and kitsch, reflect on each other in interesting ways. His affecting work reintroduces an element of humor that seems to have vanished in today's Taiwan."

The Taishin Arts Award exhibition opened April 25, 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei and features the work of all the 14 finalists who were shortlisted by a local jury. A published catalogue is available.

The Taishin Art Foundation nurtures the arts and works within both the local and art communities to build greater understanding for the arts.

The 7th Nominee's Interview 14: SWSG "Listen to Me, Please!"

Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group(SWSG): Listen to Me, Please!

Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group's (SWSG) play "Listen to Me, Please!" debuted at the Taipei Crown Arts Center on December 20, 2008. Chief creative artist Ying-Chuan WEI incorporates modern literature, especially from female artists and writers in her work. Here she discusses her creative process.

My first idea for Listen to Me, Please! is to tell a soap story about love. I am used to brewing theatrical forms in the very beginning, as, to me, form means content. I decided to use rhymed lines and paper puppets. Based on the puppet image, a lover's metaphor, I extended the 2D quality into piling layers to present human mentality, and even used mirrors on stage to reflect the deepest layers of the characters' true selves. This concept got developed further when I laid bare the space behind the mirror, which was also the space for the play-within-the-play. Here the use of metaphorical layers is a perfect form to manifest the complexity of the human mind, as well as, to make connections between fantasy and reality. The stiff physical movements follow the same "form = content" logic. 

I use different processes while working on various pieces, with the final work being the result of the process itself. The Listen to Me, Please! script is completely original. I can't quite figure out whether visual or aural ideas came up first for this work. Just one day the image of a puppet speaking stupidly in rhyme occurred to me. That's it.

Each of the various forms implies a unique working process, a demand of specific performing style and an appeal to visual/audio experience. The only thing that's "typical" to all my works is that I always call the process "an end in an emergency" that happens at the last minute before the curtain rises. (HAHA!)

I love to probe various topics, which however can't be directly addressed in the theatre. The results of the research have to be transformed/translated into theatrical language in order to make a real play, otherwise a conference or a presentation would be more satisfying. Theatre is a 3D space allowing for simultaneous visual and aural perception; the rhythm and tempo could convey more than reasoning, and a well-made rhythm (audio) can even help to intensify the impressions by images (visual). That's why I took the aural advantages of the Chinese language and used lots of rhyming rules to compose lines.

I get my ideas from various sources: daily life, my friends' stories, TV shows, childhood memories, Shakespeare's plays, the books I've read and some movies. The show is not the result of a single inspiration. Actually, I made the show just to participate in a theater festival.

Though our Taishin-nominated work seems to be a hilarious tragicomedy, the show is practiced with very complicated cues. To the actors it is especially challenging as they need to memorize and speak long condensed, rhyming lines fluently in a rhythmic, cadenced way. They must move with puppet-like rigidity while expressing themselves emotionally. Also the most demanding part, the actors have to switch between two selves as speaking in dialogue and in overtones. The quick shifts could drive an actor crazy. It happened once that an actor forgot his lines while shifting between the two selves, and he finally found lines to jump in, but these lines were supposed to be spoken five minutes later.

-----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 13: SWSG "Yen-Ling HSU x Sylvia Plath"

Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group: Hsu Yen-Ling × Sylvia Plath

Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group's (SWSG) play "Hsu Yen-Ling × Sylvia Plath" performed at Taipei National University of the Arts on April 17, 2008, features actress Yen-Ling HSU. Here, the director of the play, Baboo Liao, discusses his love of literature and the theatre.

Most of my inspiration comes from reading, mainly from reading the classics in literature: Borges, Kundera, Márquez. The way Milan Kundera talks about sympathy, is how I rewrite literary works. It's my passion. I try to transform my feelings sensitively from the readings to the audience so they can feel the reality of the author's world. At the beginning of a new production, I do tons of reading and then all the words and lines transform into the vocabularies on stage. These words also transform into images as well as movements, voices and blockings

Previously, I had worked with the playwright Men-Non CHOU on the One Hundred Years of Solitude production and she brought up the idea of working with a female author, specifically Sylvia Plath. So, then there came the long way of trying to understand Sylvia Plath by devouring everything she had written and was written about her. Reading her works made me wonder: why do I do creative works? If one can get by with what one has, why bother doing creative works? What I'm saying is that the incompleteness of one's state of mind will reflect itself to one's creative works. How does that become the desire of doing creative works? What would I become when there is a flash of inspiration? Which would result in the question of why I am who I am? What do I have to do with the creative works? How hypocritical would I become because of the passion for the creation? These are all questions without answers that aroused me when I read the works of Plath.

I have no typical process of working. Most of my works are adaptations from literature. Both Ms. Chou and I don't think it is necessary to be truthful to the original work. For example in our Plath production, there is only monologue and I had to concentrate on the delivery of the text. The actress, Ms. Yen-Ling Hsu, is very experienced and good at voices, which allowed me to focus more on the stage blocking and the movements.

The dance part by Mr. Xiao-Xion CHANG, choreographed by Mr. Chu-Yi CHOU, was trying to visualize to language and show the contradiction of Plath's characters. I wish for the audience to be able to feel whatever they feel, especially something sensational, because that’s what I feel about the theatre and the poetry works of Plath.

In this Taishin-nominated work I wanted to highlight the expertise of the actress. She sings, hums, murmurs, talks and babbles creating amplified sounds that juxtapose languages and words. I wanted the audience to not only focus on her crying, laughing, or acting, but to notice theatre techniques which were aided by several video cameras set on the wall, ceiling and floor to provide disparate viewpoints.

As a director I also rediscover what I have as "tools." However, there is always a sense of regret whenever a decision is made, because we feel uncomfortable when things are done too easily. The uncertainty of the process makes us wanting to find more.

------As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 12: Ju Percussion Group "Ju Percussion Group Winter Concert 2008: Percussion Happens Daily"

Ju Percussion Group Winter Concert 2008: Percussion Happens Daily

Ju Percussion Group (JPG) performed "Winter Concert 2008 – Percussion Happens Daily" on November 21, 2008 at the Taipei National Concert Hall. Here, the group members discuss their work.

Our group was founded by percussionist Tzong-Ching JU in January 1986. Ju Percussion Group is Taiwan's first percussion ensemble. We are a group of 13 percussionists and 1 composer. Many of our compositions combine music from the East and West, while combining traditional classics with contemporary music.

Our group is aware that historically, music composed for percussive music just began about 200 years ago. We are also deeply aware of the importance of establishing a good repertoire of pieces. This is why we have commissioned many pieces over the years from talented composers both in Taiwan and internationally in order to broaden the percussive music repertoire. This has been our long term goal, and over the past 20 years, we've commissioned more than 100 pieces. In addition to helping our own group develop, we've enriched the percussion music heritage. The composers often incorporate musical instruments and elements from all corners of the world to create their own style.

Our work that is nominated for a Taishin Arts Award is our Winter Concert 2008–Percussion Happens Daily. We have always enjoyed working with composers from around the world as these different perspectives add richness to our repertoire. For this concert, we invited five of the most accomplished composers of this generation from all over the world to write music especially for Ju Percussion Group. We gave them free rein to create new and original works that were written specifically for us.

The five composers are Toshimitsu TANAKA, Gérard LECOINTE, Yu-Hui CHANG, Eric SAMMUT and Aurél HOLLÓ. Each one is extremely talented and accomplished, and their work is so different from each other. This gave our group the opportunity to play a rich kaleidoscope of percussive sounds.

Samsara composed by Toshimitsu TANAKA slowly reveals the melody, while the musicians accent certain beats creating a vibrant rhythm. Color's Comedy by Gérard LECOINTE alludes to 17th century French Saraband, the courtly dance in slow triple time. The six-player piece Dou-Zhen by Yu-Hui CHANG features a competition with one side playing traditional Chinese drums, while the other side plays bongos and tom toms in rhythmic reply, until the two sides merge into each other. Eric SAMMUT'S Magic Carousel incorporates Gypsy, Jazz, and Latin influences and is written for eight performers. Gamelan-bound by Aurél HOLLÓ features the gamelan, with the musicians playing the fast, interlocking patterns in pairs like a Balinese orchestra, while the slower musical themes are played on bass pipes.

Since Ju Percussion Group has been together for so long, we have had the great fortune to have performed and recorded on a regular basis. We created three major multi-media productions for musical theater and released 15 recordings. The 1996 live recording special of our 10th anniversary concert received the 1997 Taiwan Golden Melody Award for Best Performer. And we released our 15th anniversary CD set Shiny Days (2002), and our 20th anniversary DVD Picture the Percussion (2005).

-----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 11: M.O.V.E. Theatre "Fable to Be, or Not to Be"

M.O.V.E. Theatre "Fable to Be, or Not to Be"

M.O.V.E. Theatre's experimental festival "Fable to Be, or Not to Be" took place on October 30 – November 1, November 6-9, 2008 at the Guling Street Theatre. In this interview, M.O.V.E.'s producer River Ren-Zhong LIN discusses the innovative production.

Fable to Be, or Not to Be is an experimental festival that combines not only individual performances, but also theatrical production, creative marketing, and integrating resources. With a cast and crew who were mostly born after 1980, it is a performance of the collective power of the younger generation.

Our inspiration came from the poll of the year's Kanji of Japan. At the end of each year, a poll is conducted in Japan to choose a Kanji—Chinese characters that are used in Japanese writing—to represent the year's events and the people's opinions and responses to both the Japanese country and the world. The idea of this poll, combined with my interest in social observation, prompted me to invite 10 performers of the younger generation to write, direct, and perform their own solo performances. In this way, we hoped to bring to the audience the attitude, values and thoughts of our generation.

The ten performers, ranging from actors, directors, singers or musicians, to dancers, each proposed one Chinese character to stand for one subject of the modern Taiwanese society, including the culture of corporal punishment, self-identification under the unique relation across the Taiwan Strait, as well as the discussion on crowd violence, mass media and gender issues.

The ten characters "泡"(bubble), "罰"(punishment), "掙"(struggle/earn), "寂" (lonesome), "忘"(forget), "勿愛"(don't), "群"(group), "絕"(desperate), "讓"(yield), and "凹" (indent)] were performed by the ten soloists such as popular female poet Shia-Shia, graffiti artist Bbrother, renowned dancer Shu-yi CHOU, Golden Bell nominated actress Hung-Yin CHOU, and illustrator Cola KING. The solos were about their own observations of political, cultural, economical, and educational social issues.

Our promotion of the Fable to Be, or Not to Be made good use of pop culture, employing the welcomed snapshots of fashion looks on the street, the products sold in the fashion market, the kuso ads, street graffiti, modern poetry, etc, and this successfully brought many visitors to the festival. We also collaborated with the fashion industry. King's art work was sold as brooches, while fashion brand USED had designed the performers' clothes. This branding helped create a sharp and fresh image that attracted a young audience. Along with the short trailer directed by Lu HUNG, director of AHead Creative CO., Fable to Be, or Not to Be successfully integrated multiple types of art, attracting the attention of both old and new audiences.

The most unique part of Fable to Be, or Not to Be, is that it is an experiment of collective creating power. Although the festival is composed of 10 solos, everyone had joined in the choosing of the 10 characters, and every individual had a part in making this festival whole. Through the language of the younger generation, our generation, we hope to communicate with the audiences of our age, and make theatrical production something that's "in" and also fun. I believe our efforts had paid off; we made it, and that's my greatest achievement in the experience.

-----As told to Susan Kendzulak

The 7th Nominee's Interview 10: The Party Theatre Group "The Sky Crisis"

The Party Theatre Group "The Sky Crisis"

The Party Theater Group is nominated for "The Sky Crisis" that debuted at Guling Theater on September 26, 2008. Director An-Chen Chiu shares his thoughts about theater.

I founded The Party Theater Group in 2000. I wanted to focus on original works by international artists or plays that contained minority themes. In 2002, I wrote, developed, and directed an original production, a musical, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet titled The Story of Two Lovers. It was later performed by the Fun Stage Theater Company of Singapore in September 2004.

Some of our plays have gay themes. Our tragic-comedy Eden in 2002 was set in Taipei's 228 Park, a favorite meeting place for gay men. Our next production Young and Wild premiered in December 2003 and featured the story of three vocational night school students who are also members of an Eight Generals troupe. In 2004 and 2005, we organized and presented two festivals of shows by solo artists called Six Queer Stories and My Dinner with Shakespeare.  Give it Up! Kafka, produced in September 2006, utilized different puppetry styles and live music. In 2007, we performed two plays about love, pain, and compassion: Letter Home and Love, Just in Time.

Our Taishin-nominated work The Sky Crisis refers to the past 50 years of uncertainty and conflict between Taiwan and China. Recent statistics show that 70 percent of Taiwanese believe Taiwan is an independent country. So our play uses those facts and feelings to create a fast-paced comedy spy story. Since Taiwanese feel anxious and unsure about what the future holds, we thought this was a great theme to explore in the theater.

Most plays, TV shows, and films dealing with the subject of Taiwan's relationship with China are serious, sad, or accusatory in tone. Of course the cross-strait issue is not funny, but we created a darkly humorous play about such serious matters; it is a black comedy. We present the personal and national confusion, conflict, and sometimes craziness that the Taiwanese people live every day. This play is a political black comedy that explores people's attitudes about Taiwan's relationship with China in the context of a fast-paced, suspenseful thriller.

The play confronts the sensitive issue of Taiwan's tenuous political existence. We satirize the perverse nature of our country's situation in which independence may bring destruction, while reunification with China may bring dissolution; so therefore, the best that we can hope for is this current limbo, this indefinite continuation of the current, ambiguous status quo. That's surely enough to make anyone crazy.

In addition, we staged the play in an unconventional manner. Everything about the play was unconventional: its storyline, characters, style, and scenery. We had six characters played by only two actors wearing masks. We had great stage design too, as we had more than 200 comic panel projections illustrated by comic artist De-Feng KE. Not only do we deal with such serious social and political matters, the play is also wildly entertaining and a great theatrical experience for the audience.

-----As told to Susan Kendzulak