The many faces of women in art

By Diana Freundl
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Apr 15, 2005, Page 13

Women's from the domestic realm has had major global consequences, with women gaining positions and making remarkable achievements in business, politics and the arts. Beginning this weekend, gender issues will be explored from an artist's perspective in Changing Faces, the first panel discussion to be held in Taiwan composed entirely of women from the Asia-Pacific region.

"We know so much about Western countries -- Europe and the US -- but how well do we know our neighbors? In many respects we share a similar background and as women we encounter similar issues, yet we know so little about one another," said Taiwanese participating artist Wu Ma-li (吳瑪俐).

To represent women's artistic achievements in the Asia region as distinct from those in Western countries, organizers have selected eight artists from Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, India, and Hong Kong and paired them with a Taiwanese artist working with the same medium. The participants were selected based on recommendations from the artistic community and the Taiwan Women Film/Video Association (responsible for the annual Women Make Waves festival). The result is a panel covering film, literature, visual art, dance and academia. All the women use art to explore gender politics in their native countries and many are leaders in their respective fields. Korean filmmaker Byun Young-Joo, for instance, has won many awards for her trilogy on Korean comfort women during World War II. Byun's latest feature Ardor will be screened twice during the exhibition.

During the lectures, each artist will speak on her own project as well as addressing more general gender issues in contemporary Asia-Pacific culture with regard to current international relations and cultural globalization. The purpose of the event, said its sponsor Li Bin (李斌), deputy commissioner of the department of Culture Affairs in Taipei, is as much to bring the issues into the public realm and make them accessible to non-artists, as to provide a space for these women to discuss the use of art in social activism. Therefore the event is open to the public and includes a weekend series of public lectures, film screenings and an ongoing exhibition.

That which governs all sponsored events -- money -- posed the only major limitation to the event. A budget of NT$1 million to cover all expenses including travel and accommodation for eight visiting artists left enough for only one group exhibition as opposed to collaborative projects between the artists. If any other problems can be foreseen it is that the interdisciplinary panel will either be too wide -- considering each has its own self-regulating principles in theory and practice -- or it won't be wide enough, considering some areas are missing, most notably music and theater. Given that this is the premiere year, however, there is always opportunity for growth, and most artists agreed that just having an event is a good start.

Changing Faces is free and open to the public and will be held at the Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村), 7 Beiping E Rd (北平東路7號). The exhibition and film screenings will run daily from 10am to 6pm, while lectures will be held over the next three weekends beginning tonight at 7:30pm and continuing every Saturday and Sundays at 2:30pm. The films have English and Mandarin subtitles, but only those artists whose names appear in capital letters will speak in English. For more information on the individual artists or films visit the website at http://www.culture.gov.tw or call (02) 2771 9785.

Film Screenings
April 17 at 10am: Ardor (密愛)
April 17 at 12am: Grandma's Hairpin (銀簪子)
April 23 at 10am: Solid Music (凝固的音樂－修澤蘭)
April 23 at 12am: Night Passage (夜之旅)

Panel Discussion
April 15: Women's Writing II -- Women's Desire in a Contemporary Context
Liu Lill (Japan/Taiwan) and Chan Ying-shu (Taiwan)
April 16: Fluid Sculpture -- Feminine Imagery in Modern Dance
Mui Cheuk-yin (Hong Kong) and Ku Ming-shen (Taiwan)
April 17: Awakening and Reflection -- Voices of Minorities in Women's Films
BYUN YOUNG-JOO (South Korea) and Hsiao Chu-chen (Taiwan)
April 22: Women with Cameras -- Herstories Told through Images
He Cheng-yao (China) and Chein Fu-yu (Taiwan)
April 23: Transgression of Image -- Digital Media and Transcultural Vision
TRINH MINH-HA (Vietnam) and Huang Yu-sam (Taiwan)
April 24: Women's Writing I -- Textual Portraits of Women
Jiang Yun (China) and Shih Shu-ching (Taiwan)
April 29: Art to Activism -- Networking and Collaboration of Women Artists
VARSHA NAIR (India) and Wu Ma-li (Taiwan)
April 30: Reflections of Women in Chinese Literature -- Women Writers and the Construction of the Feminine Image
SUN-KANG-YI (US) and Cheng Yu-yu (Taiwan)