Very well made in Taiwan

By Ho Yi
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Mar 29, 2007, Page 15

Lin Hsiao-ying's Barbie doll chandeliers. PHOTOS COURTESY OF TFAM

For years, Taiwan's cultural and creative industries have been promoted by economic and cultural officials as well as artists, professionals and local companies that have long recognized the added value created by top-notch design and brand building.

Beautiful Chaos (亂，有秩序) currently being held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) champions made-in-Taiwan design at its finest with an exhibition of 23 pieces by five life-style brands and seven designers.

In collaboration with the museum, the Taiwan Design Center (台灣創意設計中心) and Design Together (集設計聯盟) — a collective project initiated last year by several local life-style brands — the exhibition gathers together a group of 20- to 30-something artisans who take their cues from the island's seemingly conflicting cultural vocabularies in a post-modern milieu and highlight local identities.

Designers the Taipei-based international design company AGUA Design (水越設計) applied their ingenuity to the practice of outdoor banquets (辦桌) and created playful table cloths that can be fixed to tables with ropes.

Huang Mong-chih's fruit tray-cum-forks.

For industrial designer Huang Mong-chih (黃明智), creative design comes from everyday life experience. This life-style aesthetic has found a lively manifestation in his works, such as movable bookcases that can be fixed onto bars and hangers with two ear-shaped hooks on both sides.

The delicate pendant lamps by designer and college instructor Lin Hsiao-ying (林曉瑛) serve as a reminder of the former Barbie doll factories of Taishan Township, Taipei County (台北縣泰山鄉) and juxtapose the fantasies of young girls with the fate of the now-closed factories.

Roc Wang's series of glasses.

In more conceptual works by 29-year-old product designer Wu Tung-chih (吳東治), Taiwan's labor-intensive industries are put under the spotlight. The angle-steel chair in his OEM series tracks the nation's industrialization and its relationship to the global division of labor through reference to the once-booming furniture industry that has now relocated to China.

Lee Wei-lang's knife-shaped mirror.

For those interested in knowing more about the multi-award winning design companies and designers, log on to www.designtogether.com.tw.

Exhibition notes:

What: Beautiful Chaos (亂，有秩序)
Where: Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館), 181 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路三段181號)
When: Until April 1
Open: to Sunday 9:30am to 5:30pm and Saturday until 9:30pm