The A.D. Gallery of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke is pleased to cooperate with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York City to present the exhibition ?Going Green: New Environmental Art From Taiwan.? The show will open at the A & D Gallery, UNC Pembroke, on Wednesday, October 13, 10-12 AM, with a reception and gallery talk by the curator, Jane Ingram Allen, and the two visiting artists from Taiwan, Chin Chih Yang and Chuan-chu Lin. The gallery talk will begin at 10AM and also include a time for questions with refreshments following the presentations. The visitors will also get to see the outdoor installation created on campus for the exhibition by Chuan-chu Lin and the indoor installation in the gallery by Chin Chih Yang.
Yang and Lin have been artists in residence at UNCP from Oct. 2 -14 to create site-specific environmental art installations as part of this exhibition. The visiting artists from Taiwan and the curator have also made presentations to classes on campus and discussed the exhibition and their artworks with students in art history, art appreciation, studio art, environmental studies, Asian history and Multi-cultural studies.
Taiwanese artist Chin Chih Yang has been working on campus since Oct. 3 to make a site-specific artwork titled "Coughing Earth." His work is a sculpture installation in the gallery of UNC at Pembroke's A & D Gallery and also a roving performance art presentation that took place on Tuesday evening Oct. 12 from 6:30 - 8 PM. Chin Chih Yang's idea is to express his concern about the environment and bring attention to the rising water and effects of global warming in the world. For his performance work, Yang will use multiple projections video of water that he has taken around the world and project the video with his projectors carried around the campus on a wheelchair decorated with branches that he collected in Pembroke. He will project the water images on campus buildings as he moves around the campus involving the people on campus in conversations about environmental conditions and water issues. During the remainder of the exhibition time in North Carolina, Chin Chih will have his video projectors installed in the gallery in an installation using branches and recycled plastic bags that he has collected in Pembroke. The multiple projection video installation will again call attention to the problems of global warming and rising waters throughout the world.
The other Taiwanese artist in Pembroke, Chuan-chu Lin, created a site-specific sculpture installation titled "Wishing Well" outdoors on the campus in front of the art building (Locklear Hall). His artwork consists of 3 large round hay bales stacked on top of each other to form a column that is about 12 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter. The hay gives off an earthy grassy smell and has wonderful texture. He is adding metal staple-like forms that he created from recycled rebar found on campus and these giant staples will be used to join together the 3 hay bales. Lin's sculpture has the form of a column going to the heavens, and he sees it as a spiritual statement to carry our wishes for a better environment to the heavens. He wants to make people reconnect to their feelings about nature and the earth and farming. He has cooperated with a local farmer to get the hay bales, and the farmer has become very interested in how contemporary artists are using hay to make their art!
This exhibition features works in all media by Yang and Lin along with 14 other contemporary artists from Taiwan. As well as Yang and Lin, the artists included in the show are Lishan Chang, Chung-ho Cheng, Chia-ping Lu, Chao-chang Lee, Ping-yu Pan, Su-chen Hung, Ya-chu Kang, Kuo-chun Chiu, Chien-Hua Huang, Fay Ku, Mali Wu, Wen-fu Yu, Julie Chou and Ai-hua Hsia. The works in this exhibition all focus on environmental issues such as global warming, pollution, waste disposal, loss of habitat, urban encroachment and other issues.
The artists and the artworks for this exhibition were selected by Jane Ingram Allen, an American independent curator, artist and critic living in Taiwan since coming there in January 2004 with a Fulbright Scholar award. She has curated exhibitions in Taiwan and other countries that focus on environmental issues and written feature articles and reviews for Sculpture, Public Art Review and other magazines. She initiated the Guandu International Outdoor Sculpture Festival in Taiwan in 2006 and was the curator of this environmental art exhibition for four consecutive years. She also curated an exhibition of international environmental art for Taiwan?s National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in 2009, and in 2010 Jane curated an international environmental art exhibition for Cheng Long Wetlands in Yunlin County, Taiwan. Jane is also an artist herself who creates environmental installations.
The ?Going Green? exhibition is sponsored by the Taipei Cultural Center, New York City, and funded by the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan. The exhibition opened in New York on July 9, 2010, at Queens Botanical Garden, Flushing, NY; and then went to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA, opening August 6; to Accident Gallery, Eureka, CA, opening Sept. 4, and then to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Pembroke, NC, opening on Oct. 13.
The exhibition offers to the USA audiences an international perspective on environmental art and reflects the unique viewpoint and approach to nature of Taiwan?s contemporary artists who are just beginning to focus on the environment as an important issue for their country and the world. Taiwan is a very urban and highly developed technological country with many contemporary artists specializing in video art and new media. It is only recently that artists in Taiwan have begun to focus on the environment, and re-introduce to contemporary art the use of natural materials and a focus on the natural world that has always been of major importance in traditional Chinese art and culture.
The A.D. Gallery at UNCP presents this international exhibition as part of their community service exhibition program to raise awareness about environmental issues and contribute to greater understanding and cultural exchange about the common environmental problems faced by the world today.
The exhibition ?Going Green: New Environmental Art from Taiwan? continues at the A.D. Gallery, UNCP, through Nov. 3, 2010.
For more information:
Jane Ingram Allen, Curator
Emai: allenrebeccajanei@gmail.com
Tel: 857-234-2432
or
Carla J. Rokes
Assistant Professor
The A.D. Gallery Director
UNCP- Art Department
P.O. Box 1510
One University Drive
Pembroke, NC 28372
Email: carla.rokes@uncp.edu
Office: 910-775-4186