Search Taiwan News >> ------------------------------------------------ 2010_09 2010_08 ------------------------------------------------ 2008_03 2008_02 2008_01 ------------------------------------------------ 2007_12 2007_11 2007_10 2007_09 2007_08 2007_07 2007_06 2007_05 2007_04 2007_03 2007_02 2007_01 ------------------------------------------------ 2006_12 2006... ------------------------------------------------ 2005... ------------------------------------------------ 2004... Outside in: New Realms for Taiwan Art Date: 2008/02/19 - 2008/03/14 Place: Taipei Cultural Center, 1 East 42nd Street Website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/taiwan-art.html Illustration: Photo by Ula LIU "Outside In: New Realms for Taiwan Art", presented by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, runs from Feb 19 to March 14 at New York's Taipei Cultural Center. Curated by Luchia Meihua LEE, the exhibition features nine Taiwan artists living in different parts of the world, exploring the situation of Taiwan's marginalized modern art from the point view of an outsider. The recent record high auction prices for Chinese contemporary art have surprised the Western world and no one now can ignore the emerging country's art market. Taiwan's modern art, on the contrary, is in an embarrassing situation. Since putting themselves on the world map would lead to marginalization, Taiwan's contemporary artists have changed their strategy and concentrated on their position in society. The unfavorable environment has not pushed the artists to chase the market. Instead, they have stopped to look inside themselves. Curator Lee uses the "center-periphery theory" in sociology to interpret the condition of Taiwan's contemporary art that the highly-original works in the exhibition are seen as an attempt to explore the relationship among human, environment, and society.  Illustration: Mar LIN's new work "Cyber Life" The works of the featured artists, who have worked in both Taiwan and New York, communicate an anxiety of marginalization and the problems of defining the self. LIN Shih Pao's oil paintings and wooden sculptures and Walis LABAI's (Diing-wuu WU) digital images arouse public awareness of Taiwan's declining and diminishing cultures. Hung-Chih PENG and Su-Chen HUNG's image works demonstrate the essence of both the self and religion from a very unique artistic aspect. Marc LIN and Fang Yu LIN use computer technology to demonstrate the influence of computer and internet in modern people's life. Chin Chih YANG uses aluminum cans accumulated over the years to illustrate the importance of natural resources. Long-Bin CHEN's Buddha statues made of discarded printing matters explore the lesson of modern technology. Also, HUANG Shih Chieh's installations comprised of mechanic devices and inflating plastic tubes, objects and chances, demonstrate the wonders of hyperreality in an obscure way. Via art, the exhibition crosses the barriers of country and international reality, bringing the issues concerning Taiwan's marginalization to the attention of the international community.   Link: SILK ROUTE (Marc LIN) (Translation: Tienning HSU)