The sleepy township of Chinshan (
During the 16-day show, which will run until June 1, sculptors will create works that will become a permanent part of the local scene, adorning parks, traffic islands and street corners. By the end of this week, six of the projects should be unveiled.
PHOTO: DEREK LEE, TAIPEI TIMES
Chinshan's flurry of artistic activity was inspired by Hualien's (
PHOTO: DEREK LEE, TAIPEI TIMES
According to Shih Chien-chih (施建志), curator of the Juming Museum (朱銘美術館), Chinshan township originally invited eight artists, but because of travel restrictions due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an American and an Italian artist were unable to visit. Nevertheless, the exhibition is lucky to have Roger Gaudreau from Canada and Frederic Oudry from France, in addition to four local sculptors. A number of handicraft artists are on the exhibition site as well to offer daily DIY classes, including leather-carving, mud brick-carving, pottery and metal ornament making to visitors and students.
Gaudreau is working on a rhinoceros made from stainless steel rods and locally found pebbles, a work that is part of a series called The Migration of Rhinos. He has been keen on exploring the relationship between art and nature most of his professional life. He often takes advantage of the local forests, which provides him with endless mediums for his artistic creations. Placed in various natural settings, Gaudreau aims to induce spiritual dialogues between nature and art.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ORGANIZERS
Gaudreau has a deep affection for the rhinoceros and has created many of them by utilizing metal and natural materials. His rhino sculptures can be found in Canada, Italy, France, Germany and now Taiwan. His purpose is straightforward. By singling out this endangered species as the motif for his work, he asks "What are we doing with the planet?" "With drastic depletion of natural resources, the planet is getting sicker everyday," Gaudreau emphasized.
By contrast, Oudry, from France, is more of a public art enthusiast. He is devising a mosaic for a hospital still under construction in Chinshan. What makes this work distinctive is that each mosaic tile has the image of a hospital worker printed on it. He said: "In France, photos on ceramics usually remind people of cemeteries or of death. But, I'll try to do something different to prove that this is not always the case."
This mosaic at the hospital's the main entrance will serve as a constant reminder of the blood and sweat contributed by people who, because of Oudry's work, are no longer faceless.
Furthermore, of the four local artists, Dawn Chan-ping's (董振平) inventive idea of sculpturing a knight with his horse is, perhaps, the most amusing of the works in this festival. Dawn is very fond of the simple and placid way of life in this town. He reasons that most of the Taiwanese fishermen are very persistent in pursuing their profession, in good times and in bad, a trait of character that can be represented by a knight in armor.
Dawn uses specialized metals such as weather-resistant steel (耐候鋼), and granite in his art. He also compares the softness and nobility of the equine body with that of a woman, and has been moved by this to work on images of mounted knights for the last 20 years.
The art created by Wang Wen-chi(王文志)carries a strong sentimental value for many who recall their childhood days. He has designed a gigantic shrimp trap (捕蝦容器) which will lie on the lawn of the Huanggang Fisherman's Park. Wang, an independent artist for more than 10 years, mostly uses vines and wood in his work. On this occasion, he has incorporated copper rods to create a 10 x 2 x 2m shrimp trap that is large enough for an adult to walk into and feel what it is like to be trapped inside. It will also be a playground apparatus for the children living in Huanggang.
Chinshan remains a quiet coastal township fringed by fishing villages. Yet, its landscape is in effect changing fast when some of the most important art and culture centers in Taiwan have established themselves there. The most important to date is the Juming Museum, which continues to attract large numbers of tourists every year. Next to the museum is Dhama Drum Mountain (
With all of these major points of interest, plus quite a number of new hot spring resort hotels being built, Chinshan may hold a great potential to develop itself into a northern cultural town. Local residents such as Shih and town mayor, Yiu Tsong-yi (
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