The Good, the Bad and the Baffling

S T Y L E 生活時尚 15 TAIPEI TIMES • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009 EXHIBITIONS onore de Balzac’s multivolume Below left: Jayne Dyer, The Book Project. dressed in costumes right out of an The Human Comedy vividly Below right: C�hang������ Tz�u-lung,������� Fluids. American Western movie and posing dissects the manners, customs FESTIVAL notes: in what appears to be a New York H Bottom: Ma�� C�hun-fu,������� Unblessed Love. Photos courtesy of Kuandu Arts Festival and people of the tumultuous diner. How it “represents Taiwan at its age in which he lived — from the What: Kuandu Arts Festival foundation,” as the exhibition literature French Revolution to the Bourbon Where: Comedies, a group exhibit, says, is beyond this reviewer — unless Restoration. Taking the French and Jayne Dyer’s The Book Project are the point is to show that Taiwan is writer’s corpus as inspiration, the both on display at Kuandu Museum of made up of posses of cowboys hanging National Taipei University of the Fine Arts (關渡美術館), Taipei National out in greasy spoons. Had it been Arts has put together a group exhibit University of the Arts (台北藝術大學). placed in the Innovative Hybrid section, titled Comedies, part of its Kuandu Chang Tzu-lung’s (張子隆) sculptures Cheng’s point that Taiwan is a mixture Arts Festival, which purports to are on view at the campus’ Aigrette of cultural identities and styles might follow Balzac’s project by presenting Down (鷺鷥草原). Both the museum have been more apparent. Kuo Wei-kuo, Inescapable Jumbo Tower portraits of contemporary society. and Aigrette Down are located at 1 Some of the works, however, (2009).  Photo courtesy of Lin & Lin Gallery “Two centuries ago, a remarkable Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路 successfully illustrate their section’s French playwright, Balzac, described 1號). The museum is open Tuesdays to theme. Chung Kun-i’s (張崑逸) Kuo Wei-kuo (郭維國) is one of a the human nature of [his country] in Sundays from 10am to 5pm. Tel: (02) documentary, set in South Africa, handful of contemporary Taiwanese the 19th century in detail. We hope 2896-1000 X2432 intimately charts a social movement’s artists who have been willing to that, with visual codes, we can convey, When: Comedies and The Book struggle to turn tragedy into comedy. reveal their darkest secrets in art shape, construct and deconstruct the Project are on display until Dec. 31; Ji Hyun Ahn’s animated shorts, which — a theme that he continues in spirit of comedy in contemporary Chang Tzu-lung’s sculptures are on picture a group of relatives gorging his solo exhibition at Lin & Lin times,” the exhibition blurb states. display until Aug. 31, 2010 themselves on food, comically reflect on Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊). Kuo’s The festival, held at the Kuandu On the Net: kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw the human desire to consume. Both are fantastical self-portraits resemble Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館) and displayed in the Real Comedy section. halls of mirrors that reflect the artist’s Aigrette Down (鷺鷥草原), includes For the most part, Comedies is psychologically complex world. two solo shows — one by Australian baffling because it isn’t thematically They narrate the life of a middle- installation artist Jayne Dyer and the cohesive and doesn’t construct an aged man who embellishes his fears other by Taiwanese sculptor Chang incisive Balzacesque panorama. and aspirations with mythological Tzu-lung (張子隆). But the festival’s main Australian-born, Beijing-based artist motifs. The paintings often feature emphasis is the group exhibit. Jayne Dyer, on the other hand, is in full the artist — sometimes nude, other Citing one of the 19th century’s control of her medium and the themes times partially clothed — wandering most insightful novelists as the The good, the bad she wants to convey. Her installation, through a desolate landscape foundation of an art exhibit is a risky The Book Project, examines our surrounded by tempestuous storms venture because it creates powerful changing relationship with knowledge that are created using a somber and far-reaching expectations. and information as illustrated through palette of browns, grays and purples. Aspiring to emulate Balzac’s the written word. ■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), approach is an achievable goal, as for and the baffling Dyer instructed the museum to 13, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei example, dozens of local artists have collect discarded books over the past City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷13號). created multi-layered characterizations year for her installation. She then pieced For a viewing, call (02) 2721-8488 of Taiwanese society. the work together and suspended it ■ Begins Saturday, until Nov. 1 Huang Chin-ho’s (黃進河) paintings The Kuandu Arts Festival features one group exhibit and solo from the museum’s ceiling. from the 1990s blend religious and folk exhibits by artists from Taiwan and abroad I asked Dyer if the installation was The National Museum of History is symbols with the kitschy glitz of Taipei meant to evoke the tree of knowledge. holding a retrospective exhibition of to critically portray the conspicuous “Pillars of knowledge, actually,” she said. gifted musician, poet and calligrapher By Noah Buchan Lu Fo-ting’s (呂佛庭) work. The consumption of contemporary society, Staff reporter “The nature of a pillar of knowledge is while Hou Chun-ming’s (侯俊明) woodcut that it is valued at a certain place and show, displayed on the museum’s prints from the same period parody certain time and in another place and fourth floor, consists of scrolls of Lu’s the power of folk beliefs. Both artists another time it might not have meaning. calligraphy, which expresses his deep created tapestries of Taiwanese culture So there is that shifting notion of what is reverence for and understanding by employing symbols culled from the fact and what is fiction.” of Zen Buddhism. Lu’s landscape past and present. Novels, works of philosophy, music paintings, inspired by ancient Chinese Comedies, however, fails to formulate texts and scores and children’s books ideograms, are also on display. any nuanced depictions of, or comments are among the 2,500 volumes that went ■ National Museum of History on, society — whether humorous or not. into constructing the 8m-tall structure. (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, This probably has something to do with Dyer said that she was fascinated by the Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). the exhibit’s setup. Four established fact that the majority of the discarded Open Tuesdays to Sundays from artists curated the show and chose a books were computer manuals — a sign 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2361-0270. “team” of younger artists to exhibit perhaps of local preoccupations. Admission: NT$30 their paintings, installations and “This is Taiwan’s history,” Dyer ■ Ongoing sculptures within the confines of one said. “But it could be another history in of four subthemes: Real Comedy, another place.” Crystal City (水晶城市) is a series Innovative Hybrid, Multiple Characters Like Dyer, Taiwanese sculptor of installations by Taiwanese artist and Non-Academic Artists. Chang Tzu-lung uses recycled material and Taipei Art Award-winner Although the categories were to fashion monumental and abstract Wu Chi-tsung (吳季璁). Using a intended to focus the artist’s (and the works,.eight of which are on display at projector, LED lighting and plastic, viewer’s) attention, they are so vague Aigrette Down. Wu creates an urban environment that the works within one could easily The Spirit of Organicism (有機 of geometrical transparency that be transferred to another without any 之靈) is indicative of what Chang is questions the viewer’s place in loss of thematic coherence because trying to accomplish. The 3m-high the city. there wasn’t any in the first place. structure resembles an aviary. The ■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 2F-3F, Hung Yi’s (洪易) sculpture of a door, however, is open and formed to 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊 dog emblazoned with a variety of red look like a bird’s wing — it’s as though 通街41號2-3樓). Open Tuesdays to patterns taken from various cultures, the whole sculpture could take flight at Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm. for example, could have easily been any moment. Tel: (02) 2507-7243 placed in the Innovative Hybrid section By slightly altering the appearance ■ Until Oct. 31 rather than the Multiple Characters of the “birdcage,” Chang completely grouping where it is found. changes our expectations of what In The Color — Ink Paintings In Chen Ching-yao’s (陳擎耀) display its function could be. No longer a of Pan Hsin-hua (彩墨—潘信華 of figures (also located in the Multiple receptacle for animals, the cage itself 個展), the Taiwanese artist creates Characters section), characters are becomes a metaphor for freedom. a surrealistic world using a style that is rooted in Chinese traditional ink painting. Pan juxtaposes past and present in his paintings, which Japanese artist Takashi Murakami poses with his billboard for a non-existent movie examine the relevance of tradition in artwork Hiropon at the launch of the Pop Life: Art starring the lovers, to the unambiguous contemporary culture. His irreverent in a Modern World at the Tate Modern in London Ilana’s Asshole — was rejected by the visual language incorporates unconventional pictorial elements on Sept. 29.  photo: reuters art world, which felt Koons had taken exploitation too far. But it is instructive that are often of an explicitly The first room at Tate Modern is a to read the reviews, which fastidiously contemporary and playful nature. knock-out: Koons’ Rabbit (1986), that avoid the noticeably hardcore porn. ■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), gleaming cast of an inflatable bunny Perhaps the art of those bad B1, 47 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市 that turns a balloon into a voodoo doll, aesthetic times was prophylactically 伊通街47號地B1). Open Tuesday to horrifying yet inanely reflective; Andy sealed against reality. Better to talk Thursday 2pm to 11pm, Friday and Warhol’s terrific late self-portrait, a about provocation, institutional critique, Saturday from 2pm to 1am skull in a scarlet fright-wig bowing out the raising of consciousness, the way in ■ Until Oct. 31 into the darkness; Murakami’s appalling which Koons always referred to high art monument of a manga fantasy woman, — bling, but with added rococo — than Those who are enamored with teensy waist, colossal breasts spouting the content. For what is the content, if Taiwan’s raucous party politics skipping ropes of milk as she sweetly not a poke in the eye? could do no worse than check out smiles: the frightening potency of Bright yet dark, shrewd yet vacuous: You Are a Horse That I Would graphics emerging in three dimensions. Koons’ art remains poised in equal Never Ride (你是匹我永不想騎的 Each of these artists has a tension. And when you get to Damien 馬), a project by Taiwanese artist Jao subsequent gallery — or three, in the Hirst’s gallery full of gold calves in Chia-en (饒加恩), who just completed case of Warhol, who surely deserves formaldehyde, gold spot paintings, gold a residency at Taipei Artist Village. The the space as patron saint of almost vitrines dazzling with diamonds, it is exhibit investigates the experience everything that follows. no longer so obvious to whom he owes of being “infected by local political The curators have aimed for period the greater debt: the production line of fever.” Jao will give a two-hour authenticity by reconstructing some Koons or Warhol? workshop on Sunday beginning at eventful shows. Keith Haring’s Pop The British galleries of Pop Life give 10am titled Fever District. Participants Shop, with its trademark wall drawings Tate Modern its first chance to show are invited to create their own coat and its chiming till, has been recreated Hirst, Emin, Lucas, Gavin Turk et al of arms based on their personality. complete with fully operational shop. as international history, which has the To register for the workshop, call (02) Nothing like the zip and register of effect of deactivating their art. What 3393-7377 X220. the graphics, incidentally: insistently were slick, rude, crude, epigrammatic, ■ Barry Room, Taipei Artist Village recognizable and undimmed by the hilarious or willfully dumb now look like (台北國際藝術村百里廳), 7 Beiping E years through the commercial ruse of the artifacts of air-conditioned archives. Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號). timeless black and white. Not everyone will lament this, of Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10am The Tate Modern tells the story of pop art as pure, fast commodity. From Warhol Less arduous, at least in practical course, but the Americans do generally to 6pm. Tel: (02) 3393-7377 to Hirst via Koons and Haring, it’s flash, brash and hugely entertaining terms, is the exact facsimile of Richard get a better presentation. Warhol’s ■ Begins Saturday, until Oct. 25 Prince’s Spiritual America. This involved silkscreened gemstones are shown in By Laura Cumming the rephotographing of Garry Gross’ ultra-violet light, Haring has a great In his solo exhibition at Main Trend The Observer, London infamous 1976 photograph for Playboy rap sound track, Koons gets all the Gallery, Taiwanese painter Lee Press of a 10-year-old Brooke Shields floodlight he could want. The show is Ming-tse (李明則) employs multiple Pop Life is the most cunning show back into the bottle — to distil, as far actual shops. And not just art shops but wearing nothing but mascara. The frame buzzy, theatrical, densely jammed and viewpoints to depict village life and imaginable. I am tempted to call it artful. as possible, a whole chapter of modern branches of Louis Vuitton — where his is ornamental, the lighting low, the walls much more of a blast than expected. religious practices. “I paint where I On the one hand it concerns itself with times in which a particular kind of art bright logos sell the exorbitant handbags are red. These are the “quotation marks” It is of course composed of fast live, things that happened before fame, fortune and the links between turned itself into pure commodity. — and Tokyo 7-Elevens, where in which Prince supposedly offers his art: nothing to detain you for long, and things that are happening now,” them from Warhol to Hirst, centering on So this is Andy Warhol selling two customers get a tiny plastic Murakami state of the nation address. though plenty to prime the post-show he says. His sources of inspiration artists who have used the mass media portraits for the price of one, his face figure with their gum. Koons’ 1989 Made in Heaven show conversation. How quickly repetition include temple festivals, local to create their own brand and persona. to Vidal Sassoon and his reputation It is most certainly the gavel coming — soaringly, eye-poppingly gross — set in as modus operandi: the series, the theaters, newspaper stands and On the other, it is destined to be a to Drexel Burnham Lambert. It is Jeff down on a Koons’ love heart for approx- hasn’t been recreated in quite a while. reiteration, the flogged horse, the running traditional markets. surefire winner for Tate Modern, not to Koons turning his most famous steel imately 80 million times the price of That may have something to do with the gag, the market-servicing multiple and ■ Main Trend Gallery (大趨勢畫廊), mention all the many collectors, artists sculpture — of a balloon — back into similar gewgaws at an accessory store. anal sex, or the gigantically impractical edition. How often sex sold art, how 209-1, Chengde Rd Sec 3, Taipei City and dealers involved, spinning money- real balloon, 15m high and leasing it for The tales are legion, the headlines ubiq- sculpture of Koons straddling the porn often artists sold their looks, how (台北市承德路三段209-1號). Open minded art smoothly back into money PR purposes to Macy’s. uitous: what a pageant of greed, what an star Ilona Staller on a rock; or perhaps it indivisible art frequently seemed from Tuesdays through Saturdays from under cover of historical scholarship. It is Takashi Murakami spreading his allegory of supply, demand, ingenuity, has something to do with the bitter end prostitution, promotion and pornography. 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2587-3412 Pop Life deserves to be a hit, though, super-flat pop art all across the globe inflation, excess. The only problem is of their marriage. And how empty the provocations ■ Begins Saturday, until Nov. 7 because it tries so hard to get the genie from art fairs and glossy magazines to how to convey it in objects. That show — from the colorful often were — and still are.