The Fragmentized Illusion: An Exhibition of Taiwan Contemporary Art
Duration：2009/8/21~9/20
Exhibiting Artists：Mei Dean-E(梅丁衍)、Wu Tien-Chang(吳天章)、
Chen Shun-Chu (陳順築)、Yao Jui-Chung (姚瑞中)
Venue： Galerie Grand Siecle│www.changsgallery.com.tw
10559 1F, No.17, Alley 51, Lane 12, Sec 3, BA-DE Rd, Taipei, 10559 Taiwan
Tel：02-2578-5630 Fax：02-2578-8659
Opening Hours)：13:00 -18:00（closed on Monday）
Open Recession：8/29 19:00 pm
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Since the Martial Law in Taiwan was lifted in the 1987, the conservative atmosphere in the society was soon dispelled by the energy to embrace the “new ideas.” In this island country which used to be called “Formosa” – a beautiful place – there was no way for contemporary art to be apart from such a sudden change. Artists started to employ various types of materials in their artistic creation. Photography thus became one of the most frequently adopted genres for Taiwanese artists to practice their experimental ideas. Liberated from a society once dominated by political ideology, artists were gradually fascinated by the complicated historical background and the multi-cultural influence in their own self-identity and the national identity. The personal memory entwined with the mass collected experience thus became an inerasable mark branded on the development of the contemporary art in Taiwan. The critical insight and the nostalgic touch interacted with each other, veiling the insecurity of all Taiwanese behind the rapid development in economy and politics.
While talking about the representation of reality in Taiwan, “identity” will never be absent in all aspects. The artist Mei Dean-E plays with the idea of identity in his work <Ai-Duen-Ti-Ti> (The homophone of identity in Mandarin). He digitalizes the aged photography from the Japanese colonial period and the following Martial Law Period, piecing up the history as if he is re-creating the colonial memory which he has actually never experienced as a second-generation of Mainlanders (the term refers to those Chinese who came to Taiwan after the WWII with KMT).
Similar to Mei Dean-E, Wu Tien-Chang also reconstructs the images in a digital way. He adopts the idea of “Tai-Ke” (台客, the term used to be regarded as a discriminative slang to refer to Taiwanese, in comparison with Mainlanders, but recently it is often employed as an empowerment for the Taiwanese identity awareness). Awarded as the Special Jury Select by Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture earlier this year, Wu Tien-Chang plays the role as a director in <Never Relax Morning and Night> to embody the history. The sub-cultural setting and the black comedy-like plot thus reflect the tragic-comic essence in the Taiwanese history.
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