Exhibitions highlight Kaohsiung’s artistic image

2015/10/27

Two avant-garde exhibitions are underway at the Pier-2 Art Center in Kaohsiung City, placing a spotlight on the emerging contemporary arts scene in the southern Taiwan metropolis.

Running through Nov. 24, Five Senses Meet Together features nine pieces by artists and groups from home and abroad, combining and twisting the perspectives of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch to create a synesthetic experience.

Wang Hui-ling, director of the Pier-2 operations center, said the seven-week event underscores the tireless hard work of the exhibitors. “We continue offering artists fresh opportunities to push the envelope of creativity.”

Artists taking part in the exhibition are Chen Ting-chou, Liu Chih-hung, Kuo Pei-chi, Tseng Wei-hao and Wu Siou-ming of Taiwan, ROMI from Belgium and the U.K., Stephen Orlando of Canada, Przemyslaw Adamski and Katarzyna Kijek from Poland, as well as Aguasonic Acoustics of the U.S.

One of the highlights of the show is “Drawing of Noise: Kaohsiung” by Liu. As part of the Sound Topography series that recorded environmental sounds in Taipei, as well as Yamaguchi and Fukuoka of Japan, the piece captures the voices of everyday people and surrounding noises in Kaohsiung and converts them into sketches and text, which together produce a visualized sound print database for the southern Taiwan port city.

Equally impressive is interactive listening-tasting workshop “Fu Sound Room” by ROMI. The group examines how electroacoustic sounds affect people’s ability to taste, and generates a sweet named “Snoepje” via an impression of the city’s sounds.

The other intriguing display, A Walk Elsewhere, showcases large-scale interactive installations representing eight artists’ travel experiences and the concerns they elicit.

Involved talents include Chou Tung-yen and Wang Chia-di of Taiwan, Elien Ronse from Belgium, Mantu Das and Sudipta Das of India, Ikezaki Takuya from Japan, Bruno Lavos Marques of Portugal and Chris Shen from the U.K.

One piece of note is “Rise and Fall” by Marques, who enlarged a fisherman’s photo taken at Kezailiao fishing port in Ziguan District, and attached extended elastic bandages to symbolize the progression of the region’s past and its future development.

Another thought-provoking piece is a deity portrait by Mantu Das. Inspired by the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan (1895-1945), the artist depicted an imaginary battle between Guan Yu-Taiwan’s God of War-and his Japanese counterpart Hachiman. The war in the heavens embodies his thoughts on the island’s past.

“The innovative ways of changing people’s conceptions of their senses and interactively experiencing local environmental and historic landscapes are certain to shorten the gap between contemporary art and the public, thus winning over new legions of fans to this art form,” Wang said.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=238209&ctNode=2194&mp=9)