A giant mosaic made from recycled plastic bottles depicting Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting The Starry Night is to be unveiled on Saturday in Keelung’s Embrace Cultural and Creative Park (擁恆文創園區).
The mosaic, named The Starry Paradise, covers 53 hectares and is expected to set a new Guinness World Record as the largest of its kind.
The project is almost complete and the artist responsible for its creation has received more than 4 million recycled plastic bottles in donations, the park management said.
Photo: Lu Hsien-hsiu, Taipei Times
Finding the plastic bottles to create The Starry Paradise was a trying experience, said Wang Cheng-wei (王振瑋), the designer and overseer of the piece, who is also a lecturer at the National Changhua University of Education and a renowned sculptor involved in many public art projects.
The bottles were donated by recycling centers as well as individuals, and for every 10 bottles that were received, the park donated NT$1 to the Canlove Social Service Association, a charity that aims to help people with depression, Wang said.
The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation in Hualien County assisted in coordinating organizational efforts and promoted the project on Facebook, he said.
“The project focuses on the concepts of healing and art, while serving as a charity that addresses environmental concerns,” park spokesperson Jeffrey Wang (王志欽) said.
Finding sufficient numbers of blue bottles was especially challenging, as blue was a prominent color in the original painting, Wang Cheng-wei said, adding that blue plastic bottles are relatively rare in Taiwan and that they had to work hard to obtain correct hues of blue bottles.
“This project is a dialogue between Vincent van Gogh and me,” Wang Cheng-wei said
“It has different visual effects in daytime when the grass under the mosaic forms a contrast with the arrangement’s colors, while at night LED lights illuminate the places where stars are in Van Gogh’s composition,” the artist said.
The installation is to start receiving visitors on New Year’s Day, the park management said.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS