Ugly in life, beautiful in art

In 1991 in Germany, Wang Xiao-hui (王小慧), an aspiring Munich-based Chinese photographer, was driving in a car with her husband when an accident occurred. It killed her husband and seriously injured her face. The first thing she did after waking in the hospital was not cry and mourn, but take dozens of photos of her disfigured face. The reason for this uncommon action was, Wang later recalled, that she wanted to record with her camera what really transpired. "An artist is supposed express not what's beautiful but what's real," Wang said.

Having published 13 photo albums in Germany since then, Wang, who moved there from Shanghai 15 years ago, has proved herself to be a serious photographer. The documentary of the turning point in her life will go on exhibit Wednesday in Taipei's German Cultural Center, along with more than 50 other photos from her Frauen Bilder (Images of Women) series.

Made before 1997, these portraits of women, many nude, show more than the physical beauty of the female shape. The Self-Extrication (自我解脫) series, though employing a female nude, is a metaphor for a cross-gender situation -- the effort it takes to liberate oneself from social and cultural bonds and the resulting realization of one's potential. To explore little-noticed but no less genuine aspects of womanhood, Wang made portraits of mentally disturbed female beggars in her neighborhood and bitter prostitutes she met on her travels with whom the amiable photographer made friends. "What's ugly in real life is often beautiful in art," Wang said in the press conference before the exhibition's opening, explaining why these portraits managed to tell the touching stories of these seeming nobodies.

The Spirit of Flowers (花之靈) and Inherent Light (本質之光), her latest photo series are featured in A Blaze of Color (異色情) exhibition, which opened yesterday in Taiwan International Visual Arts Center.

Inherent Light is a departure from her black-and-white portraiture. Influenced by her college training in architecture, these abstract photographic works explore the interaction between shape, color and light. "Certainly there's a strong influence from Bauhaus in these abstract photos. ... When I took them, I felt like I was painting with my moving camera," Wang said.

The Spirit of Flowers is at first sight a celebration of the beauty of blooms in flaming colors. However, like the portraits of women, these flowers are often far from pretty. "Flowers, as human nudes, are media for me to express the passage of life," Wang said. For this purpose, she kept withering or mildewed flowers, burned them or left them in the refrigerator for several days before using them as subjects to mirror the human life in the photos. Walking, a close-up of a callalily bloom, is an example of the photos' warm texture.

The visual language of these three series of photos are sometimes not enough to convey the rich stories behind them. Maybe that's why Wang published My Visual Diary: Fifteen Years in Germany days before the opening of her exhibition in Taipei. Viewers untouched by these works may well turn to the book for behind-the-scene stories, which are dramatic for an artist's autobiography.

See listings on page 18 for information on Wang Xiao-hui's exhibits being held in Taipei.