National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute
2011 Museum of Arts and Design-Open Studios Program 9/13~9/18
9/12 pm2:30 at Taiwan Taipei cultural Center of TECO in New York
Twenty-first century?s digital age and globalization tendency creates an illusory atmosphere which makes cultural identity and the sense of belonging of cultural industries especially important. Traditional crafts have local history, cultural background and nature as its base and continue to attract other external forces. After the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the baptism of the twentieth century aesthetics, the craftsmanship has developed a crosscutting nature with a mix of design, fashion, nature and art. Materials in process under craftsman?s hands correspond to the attitude of contemporary craftsmanship and the expression of emotions towards craftsman?s homeland and their own culture.
Based on the aim of cultural exchange and to promote Taiwan's craftsmanship internationally, the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Center, Taipei Cultural Center in New York and the Design Museum of Art (MAD) has co-operated an exchange program. Artists are arranged to work in the Open Studios on the sixth floor of MAD from 13th to 18th of September in order to interact with the public about their creation and to promote Taiwan?s culture.
There are three participants in this program:
1. Chen, Shao- Yi
How does a younger generation craftsman with Eastern cultural background facing Western impact recreates his/ her personal and cultural way of being? With a rich artistic experience in the United States (2010 Residency artist of South Carolina University, South Carolina USA/2009 Full Scholarship of Haystack Craft School, Maine USA), young pottery sculptor, Chen Shao Yi, combines ceramics with the performance forms of animations. Focus on the event as a starting point, through the concept of theater and animation, presenting the sense of movement through stillness and the sense of stillness through movement. Moreover, the human emotions revealed in are often ambiguous and often contains a certain tinge of irony.
Ceramics has a strong sculpting and three-dimensional character. Changes and modifications can be made when the clay is in its drying state. Such variability, with the use of video equipment to capture images of actions, allows a story to be narrated dynamically. The viewer may simply read the paintings on the ceramics to understand the artwork, but may also understand the work in another language via different visual vocabulary. At the same time, the video works can either be kept in the museum or can be transported to other regions. Hence, it is a combination of technology, craft and design.
2. Fan, Yang- Wu
What kind of furniture combines the toughness of earth, gentleness of water, the sound of wind, the incessant chatter of time and the hard-work of men? What kind of furniture does not just explores the principle between existence and inexistence, between movement and stillness, also displays the concept of day and night, embraces the limits and the infinites, communicates between death and rebirth, narrates proceed and return, also combines manmade and nature? SMANGUS workshop?s craftsman Fan, Yang- Wu brings a strong emotion towards his hometown across the ocean to present the unique aesthetic and spiritual realm of handmade timber furniture.
Fan said, "The scenery is actually hiding in each block of wood, what I have to do is only to release it. I often start my work by finding inspirations from the material itself. Every piece of timber has its own life traces sometimes those trace reminds me of mountains, rivers and sometimes elegant rocks. Maybe there is a Cartier-Bresson's ?The Decisive Moment?, once the brain is set, a large and a small chain saw plays, what is in the brain will be performed thoroughly.? Fan creation is somewhat like the top martial arts; with no certain factions nor certain moves, but with deep inner aesthetic strengths. Each piece of timber furniture seems to reveal one after another under his dancing hands.
3 Su, Su- Jen
As people around the world began to care about the earth, the Arctic ozone layer is getting thinner. Over-exploitation of forests leads to reduced oxygen globally. Scientists and environmentalists have found that bamboo can replace timber as it is a recyclable resource, it can also balance oxygen and carbon dioxide in the natural environment. It is one of the most useful plants on earth.
However, what is bamboo for people in Taiwan? Bamboo has been used in everyday life as a lifestyle and culture. It can be a symbol of high tolerance and can also be a memory of childhood where bamboo baskets and cages were used by our grandparents. From architectural structures, surface materials, furnitures, cabinets to food dish, chopsticks, etc; and to the art of weaving and carving, a life filled with bamboo seems to have a little leisure and elegancy.
Su has a rich traditional bamboo craft experience for seventeen years, specializing in bamboo weaving. She has been co-operating with designers to develop various forms of furniture in recent years. In 2008, she has gained the ?The Most Touching Piece? in Maison & Objet France fall ?and in 2009, has gained Germany's Reddot design Award. The activities this time in MAD will be completing a lampshade with different techniques and to guide the publics to experience bamboo weaving.
Taiwan's Open Studios? activities at MAD: 13th of September to 18th of September
Open studio hours: 10:30 am ~ 1:20 pm, 2:30 pm ~ 5:00 pm
Thursday, 15th of September: evening 6:00 pm-8: 30pm