Regardless of the topics tackled and mediums used by the artists, all of the works on display rely to a certain degree on sarcasm in order to get their messages across.
Lee Jiun-shyan's (李俊賢) Girl Selling Betel Nut (北灰西施) fuses a Buddha and a topless betel nut girl in order to depict the artist's conception of the way in which he feels modern society has become blind to true divinity.
While Yang Shun-fa's (楊順發) Lin Tsu Kung (林祖公), a work which in an amalgamation of random and unrelated images with a Gothic twist, provides viewers with a less in-your-face and more thought-provoking glimpse of post-martial law Taiwan.
Not that all the works belittle the social system. Works such as Chen's 1989 Escaping from the Polluted Island (逃出污染島), is a piece that condemns the nonchalant and uncaring manner in which the nation industrialized without sparing a thought for the environment.
Ironically the once dark ominous tones, stark realism and sarcasm that once shocked the art world have since become trendy. Whereas the aesthetic rebellion of artists in the time immediately following the lifting of martial law was born of political oppression, such art has found itself commanding a very different place in modern Taiwan.
"I guess it's a natural progression. What was once considered radical and shocking is no longer conceived of as such," said the exhibition's curator. "It's quite surprising how quickly social comment has become socially fashionable. Works that depict anger and idealism are now fashion items rather than social commentary."
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