Return of the creative minds

Works by 10 young, up-and-coming artists are gathered at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum for an exhibition that shows an unusually broad diversity of artistic expression.

The artists represented in the show titled "New Minds -- Artistic Creations in Motion" recently completed an exchange program sponsored by the Council for Cultural Affairs (文化建設委員會), which scattered them overseas to six art villages contracted by the council in the US and UK for three-month stays last year.

The artists are given significant leeway in their presentations, providing testament to contemporary Taiwan art as dynamic, imaginative and creative, mixing media and technology, and bringing theatrical effects into the showroom.

The younger of the featured artists use a direct and personal approach in releasing their emotions through their artwork. Chen Chien-jung's (陳建榮) large acrylic paintings, for example, convey a sense of violence and chaos with broken lines and blocks, smears and drops of paint. The impression is of kids throwing a tantrum on the canvasses.

Having grown up in Taipei, Chen, 28, said he finds painting a means of venting anxiety he feels toward the city which has changed so dramatically and is a constant swirl of political turmoil, pollution and crowds.

In a drastic change of tone from Chen's piece, Hsieh Min-wen's (謝敏文) lovely installation Blessings is very feminine. She fills a dark room with sparkling stars, creating a scene that's sensual and ethereal. Hsieh, also 28, seems to communicate her hope that people's wishes would come true and the stars are symbols of those wishes. The conceptual framework is simple but the visual effect is strong. The sad story behind the piece is that Hsieh dedicated it to her brother, who died at 22.

Another young artist Fang Wei-wen (方偉文), 30, transmits his emotions into bizarre constructions based on geometric patterns. The objects look like toys made of such materials as wooden sticks and mesh screens. One section of this installation is a gigantic canon sculpture that Fang described as a construction of an imagined self.

The older artists featured in the exhibition, such as Chen Long-bin,(陳龍斌) Tang Tang-fa (唐唐發) and Li I-chiuan (李宜全) tackle the larger themes of the environment and society. What's refreshing in these artists' works is that they have largely shed the harsh, critical tones that have dominated much of Taiwan art over the past decade and instead have turned to humor to address in a mild way the issues in their lives and environments.

Tang, for example, has a two-piece installation titled Sweet Kiss in which he uses plastic material painted with light neon colors to make a cloud and what looks like and an over-sized anteater. This second piece was made with a standing fan, from which extends a s-shaped plastic bag. Two "eyes" dangle from wires that project from what should logically be the beast's head. Tang said he sought to cast plastic in a positive, benign light by making his installation loveable and pleasing to the eye.

Li, 37, whose previous installations touched on morality and religion, has changed thematic directions to make a comical and playful over-sized board game that hangs from the exhibition wall. Game is Not Over is a reproduction of a favorite children's game, which often provides people's initiation to gambling and commercialism, phenomena about which Li is wryly sarcastic.