Trip to Taiwan, part three of many
Dec. 29th, 2006 06:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilaiAfter much talk about what W and I could do with our remaining time, we decided that on Sunday we were going to see Juming Museum. Located north of Taipei in the Jinshan area, the outdoor museum occupies a large chunk of mountain and was originally conceived as a lot where the artist Ju Ming (Zhu Ming) could store all his sculptures. Naturally any such large collection of art could be retooled into a tourist attraction, so that's exactly what Mr. Ju did.
Getting there involved a pleasant drive through Tamshui, along the northern coastline of Taiwan (where the sea was beautiful), then snaking up Jinbao Mountain. Once we got there we got a fantastic view of the valley below, toward the town of Jinshan. We managed to find a tour group that was one short of the group discount (score!). By that point it was already noon, so we had lunch in the cafeteria before entering the museum grounds.
Mr. Ju's art is organized into several series: there's the Living World series of everyday people, the Tai Chi series of various rock sculptures inspired by his experience practicing the martial art, and the military series of soldiers from the army, navy, and air force. The media range from bronze cast sculptures (often showing the twine-wrapped foam that he used to create larger pieces), bent steel tubing, large rock carvings, and wood carvings. In all of his art the lines are simple, yet somehow he manages to convey lifelike expression in the faces and postures. The giant rock arches (which must be some two stories tall) in the Tai Chi series come to life, even with the human element so thoroughly abstracted away that at first glance they seem to be inanimate.
There was also a side exhibit of photographs by Laurent La Gamba called "Urban Camo". In what he called "Pro-cryptic installations", the French artist got his friends and family to wear white jumpsuits and painted their clothing to match the background behind them. A series of photos showed these people in supermarket aisles, and another merged human and appliance (fridges and washers) together in many different colors reminiscent of Andy Warhol's silkscreened prints. La Gamba also convinced swimming pool owners to pose in front of their pools with a fridge nearby, and even photographed "cosmonauts" inside a model of the Mir Space Station.
Getting there involved a pleasant drive through Tamshui, along the northern coastline of Taiwan (where the sea was beautiful), then snaking up Jinbao Mountain. Once we got there we got a fantastic view of the valley below, toward the town of Jinshan. We managed to find a tour group that was one short of the group discount (score!). By that point it was already noon, so we had lunch in the cafeteria before entering the museum grounds.
Mr. Ju's art is organized into several series: there's the Living World series of everyday people, the Tai Chi series of various rock sculptures inspired by his experience practicing the martial art, and the military series of soldiers from the army, navy, and air force. The media range from bronze cast sculptures (often showing the twine-wrapped foam that he used to create larger pieces), bent steel tubing, large rock carvings, and wood carvings. In all of his art the lines are simple, yet somehow he manages to convey lifelike expression in the faces and postures. The giant rock arches (which must be some two stories tall) in the Tai Chi series come to life, even with the human element so thoroughly abstracted away that at first glance they seem to be inanimate.
There was also a side exhibit of photographs by Laurent La Gamba called "Urban Camo". In what he called "Pro-cryptic installations", the French artist got his friends and family to wear white jumpsuits and painted their clothing to match the background behind them. A series of photos showed these people in supermarket aisles, and another merged human and appliance (fridges and washers) together in many different colors reminiscent of Andy Warhol's silkscreened prints. La Gamba also convinced swimming pool owners to pose in front of their pools with a fridge nearby, and even photographed "cosmonauts" inside a model of the Mir Space Station.
