A large sculpture by Japanese artist Eiji Tamura featuring an Amis Aboriginal girl was unveiled in Taipei yesterday ahead of an exhibition of his works in Hualien County.
The colorful 2.3m tall sculpture will be among more than 60 pieces of Tamura’s works which are to be showcased at the Hualien Cultural and Creative Industries Park, said Ron Lin, chairman of show organizer TJ-LINK Culture Info Co.
Made from various materials, including styrofoam, the sculpture features a girl dressed in the traditional bright red and black Amis costume with a white headpiece.
Tamura, who has visited Hualien four times, said the county’s Amis left a great impression on him during his first visit there this year, prompting him to create the Amis sculpture, which he named Ami-chan.
“My work reflects childhood memories and dreams,” Tamura, 57, said, adding that he hopes Taiwanese will experience a “joyful feeling” when viewing his display.
Tamura is known for using computer technology in his paintings. He said he paints the backgrounds by hand, but uses digital imaging of real-life objects to create the main subject of the paintings.
“We hope the exhibition will help unleash the imagination of children in eastern Taiwan,” Lin said.
The “Eiji Tamura Amazing Journey” exhibition will run for a year at Tam-Tam World, a hall in the park that has been specially designed to display Tamura’s works of art and posters he designed jointly with another Japanese artist.
“I hope Tam-Tam World will become a place for cultural exchanges between Taiwan and Japan,” he said.
During the press conference, the artist also tearfully thanked Taiwan for its assistance after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.
He held up a sheet of paper on which he had written “Taiwan You Taiwan” in Chinese characters.
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