Installation artist displays his lighter side

Long lauded by the local art community for his ability to create large perplexing, at times shocking, yet always eye-catching installation artworks, artist Wu Yu-tang (吳宇堂) will be giving art buffs a rare glimpse of his saner side at Taipei's East Gallery (東之畫廊) over the next two weeks.

Changing his name in 2001 from Wu Cheng-hsiung (吳正雄) to Wu Yu-tang due to several articles he wrote being credited to a Kaohsiung artist of the same name -- a fellow artist Wu politely describes as "as bit older than me" -- Wu's latest exhibition features two dozen of his rarely seen oil paintings.

The retrospective exhibition plots the artist's gradual shift from still life to the absurd and dreamlike -- or from student to artist, as Wu likes to describe it.

Along the way, the display gives viewers an interesting glimpse into the development of the artist's world.

Beginning with collection of basic portraits created while studying in France in the early 1990s and concluding with works such as the mind-boggling Cockroach Home (蟑螂屋) and the surreal Blue Hat and Tie (帽子與領帶), the works on display date from 1991 to 1996.

So contrasting are the works, in fact, that the exhibition has all the appearance of a joint exhibition, offering visitors a smorgasbord of shapes and forms to enjoy.

Although the current exhibition might leave Wu's less mainstream fans scratching their heads as to the relevance of a portrait of a young girl to Wu's artistic development, the aim of the exhibition is two-fold and really quite straightforward.

Not only does he see it as an opportunity to reach out to Taiwan's more conservative art crowd, more importantly, the holding of such an exhibition is one of the few ways in which Wu can make a living as an artist.

"It's alright creating installation works in which I get across a point of view or concept and make the viewer think in ways he or she has never done before, but such works don't sell," stated the artist. "People want a painting to hang on their wall not an installation piece littering their entire house."

While making no bones about his desire to sell a few paintings in the coming two weeks, Wu also hopes that the exhibition will lead to a better understanding of the basis for many of the eccentric ideas he incorporates in his more outlandish installation works.

Wu's strange worlds have included a stomach-turning look at skin diseases, Department of Dermatology (皮膚科) -- an exhibition that featured graphic photographs of some horrendous skin complaints -- and the more inane, Steps in the Clouds (漫步在雲端), a piece in which Wu suspended a mannequin unicyclist above a sand filled swimming pool in which another mannequin sat. Both works were lauded by critics and contemporary art fans when exhibited in Taipei in 2000.

"I have no problem with being known as the guy who creates the weird and wonderful installation pieces," Wu said. "But I'd like people to recognize me as an all-round artist rather than some crack-pot who simply creates offbeat, three-dimensional worlds. I'm an artist and, well, artists use many mediums."

Art Works by Wu Yu-tang (吳宇堂個展) is on display until Jan. 26 at East Gallery (東之畫廊), located at 8F, 218-4 Chunghsiao E. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei (台北市中孝東路4段218-4號8F). The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm, Tuesdays through Sundays.