Life inspires the art of A-Kan

Kan Shing-yi (甘信一), aka A-Kan, usually spends his afternoons smoking and chatting with friends and visitors at his art gallery, which used to be a rundown two-story house near Hualian (花蓮縣). Now there is a smart sign JOKI (拙而奇) outside and it is a comfortable place to hang out.

The art gallery, founded in 1996, is on the East Coast and has a view of the Pacific Ocean. A-Kan's staff serve tea or coffee and simple meals to visitors, as many of them have likely traveled a long way to find the gallery. On a cozy porch at the back of the establishment, visiting guests find canopied seats and tables.

It's a relaxing place to spend some time in the summer, sipping freshly brewed coffee and appreciating the Pacific Ocean scenery, as waves crash onto rocks and if you're lucky, dolphins or whales can be seen passing by.

Alternatively you can take the Shiti Harbor (石梯港) whale watching tour, which starts off on dry land just five minutes away from the gallery. On the tour, more often than not, tourists will find different groups of dolphins swimming curiously around the boat in the middle of the ocean.

A-Kan is a slim, middle-aged man with a small moustache who often wears a white peaked cap. He has been creating works of art in Hualian for more than 20 years and has married a woman from the Amei tribe.

Driftwood from the ocean, cobblestones on the seashore and manmade copper tubes are the three major components of A-Kan's multi-media art pieces.

"Stone symbolizes antiquity since it existed a long time ago. Wood implies life for the reason that it has annual rings; and copper, a product of modern science, stands for technology and the future of human society," A-Kan says.

His overriding idea is to utilize natural and ancient substances with a touch of modernity to show human history through the creation of art.

A-Kan's Art Chair series is full of stylish humor and combines practical usage and beauty. Those who have seen Art Chair can clearly see the artistic touches that have been applied to the chairs. The result of such art comes from a sophisticated thinking about the relationship between people and furniture before such a piece is produced.

Another of A-Kan's series of pieces is Seaward, which uses big and small fish, carved and polished from seaside cobblestones, as an image to echo the sound of the ocean, which A-Kan believes to be the origin of life. Many of his other works such as Zen and the Turandot series are so creative and witty that one would find it hard to not be overwhelmed by such artistic ingenuity.

Some of A-Kan's artworks are not just appreciated by ordinary visitors to his gallery but also by the wealthy and powerful, who happen to be collectors of his works. Such rich and famous fans include the Tsai family, which owns the newly renovated Sheraton Taipei Hotel, the Wu family which owns the Shin Kong Group, construction tycoon Nita Ing (殷琪) and various other

collectors.

Once upon a time A-Kan was given the opportunity to stay in Germany to create art, but he decided to leave after a short period of time due to lack of inspiration from the country.

Connie Lin (林育卉) of the Broadcasting Development Fund has been collecting A-Kan's art for the past three years. She says she is most impressed by the down-to-the-earth nature of A-Kan's works.

"A-Kan has been able to apply simple and natural media to all of his works and yet through his creative ways of working things out I can imagine that he constantly tries out different methods to solve problems. This kind of working attitude reminds me of Taiwan," Lin says. "Whenever people down here encounter a difficulty they seek out various ways to overcome it. It is this same powerful imagination that is driving the country and its people to look forward to a better future."