The most sophisticated project may be Chen Long-bin's Reading Room -- Dr. Gorilla Show (2001). For this piece, Chen made a large, hollow reading room using bookcases. The bookcases are filled with publications and the whole is sculpted into the form of a human head, which can be opened, permitting entry to the space inside. Also, projected on an adjacent screen is the the 36-year-old artist, wearing a tuxedo and a gorilla mask at the opening of the show. Chen says he wore the costume to deconstruct the supposition that knowledge and culture are contained within books and to say that despite outward appearances of gentility, people are, in fact, beasts. "Some people are animals with human faces," Chen said, "and their cultural decorations, such as books, serve to camouflage their inhumanity."
Chen said he bought the mask last year while at the 18th Street art village in Los Angeles, where he was inspired by the special effects and glitter of Hollywood.
Art Notes:
What: New Minds -- Artistic Creations in Motion (飆緒藝術創作移防)
Where: Gallery 3B, Taipei Fine Art Museum (台北市立美術館), 181 Chungshan N. Rd., Taipei (台北市中山北路4段181號)
When: Until April 22
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