Arts and Artists in Taiwan, a Free Symposium Celebrating the
Reopening of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, March 13-15, at
San Francisco State University
The symposium features artists Wu Mali, Ah Leon, Chiang Ming-Shyan, Wang Toon and the Taipei Dance Circle as well as Bay Area arts personalities.
A COMPANION EXHIBIT AT THE CESAR CHAVEZ STUDENT CENTER ART GALLERY
RUNS MARCH 14-APRIL 9
SAN FRANCISCO ·The College of Creative Arts and San Francisco State University present Arts and Artists in Taiwan, a special program celebrating the reopening of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Thursday, March 13 through Saturday, March 15, 2003. This free three-day symposium surveys historic and contemporary developments in Taiwan arts after 1949 and presents contemporary examples of works by Taiwan-based artists including video and installation conceptual artist Wu Mali, the realist ceramist sculptor Ah Leon, traditional painter Chiang Ming-Shyan, award-winning filmmaker Wang Toon and Taipei Dance Circle. The artists, along with arts administrators Lin Po-Ting, Robert P. Liu, art critic Manray Hsu and curators, dialog in panel discussions with Bay Area arts personalities including artist Rigo 03, Kathryn Reasoner, Executive Director, Headlands Center for the Arts, among others. A companion exhibit at the Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery runs from March 15 through April 9, 2003.
The following are among the artists featured in the symposium:
Wu Mali is a conceptual artist who creates both videos and installations in response to the outside world. Always thought-provoking, her work is diverse in both subject matter and in medium. She studied art in Dusseldorf, Germany were she earned a degree in German art and culture, in 1986.
Ink painter Chiang Ming-Shyan believes that Taiwanese ink painting plays a pivotal role in the longevity of the medium. While he has a strong devotion to the tradition of ink painting, his color washes are experimental.
Ah Leon studied painting in Taiwan and quickly discovered a passion for ceramics. He has since become renowned for his work, primarily teapots, which incorporates a revered 400-year-old tradition of unglazed pottery and resembles wood and bonsai tree patterns. This work has been shown extensively throughout the United States and Europe.
Wang Toon is the director of 14 films including Hill of No Return, If I Were Real, and Straw Man. He is the recipient of the Golden Horse Awards in the Best Picture and Best Directing categories. A Fine Arts graduate of the National Taiwan Academy, he also attended the University of Hawaii where he studied stage research.
Founded in 1984, Taipei Dance Circle, directed by Liou Shaw-lu, is praised worldwide for its original and innovative choreography incorporating Tai-Chi Chun, Chi Gong and Zen.
The Symposium Schedule is as follows:
Screening: Run Away by Wang Toon
Thursday, March 13, 7:00 pm·10:00 pm, Free
August Coppola Theatre, Fine Arts Building
SFSU campus, 19th Ave & Holloway, SF
Wang Toon dialogs with Professor Jenny Lau, Cinema Department, SFSU/College of Creative Arts, following the screening.
FLOW presented by Taipei Dance Circle
Directed by Liou Shaw-lu
Friday, March 14, 7:00 pm, Free
McKenna Theatre, Creative Arts Building
SFSU campus, 19th Ave & Holloway, SF
"The mysterious, repetitive, frictionless ambiance is...enthralling," says the Village Voice of Taipei Dance Circle's baby-oil dances. FLOW, the latest in this series, incorporates choreographer Liou Shaw-lu's dance philosophy of Body, Mind and Chi. Dancers push, pull, roll, slide, collide and tumble, expressing interdependence, harmony and the natural order of the universe.
Symposium: Artists, Scholars and Administrators
Saturday, March 15, 9:30 am·5:00 pm
Morning Panel
9:30 am·12:45 pm, Knuth Hall, Creative Arts Building
Robert P. Liu, Director, Taipei Cultural Center, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, New York, moderates a discussion between distinguished scholars and administrators:
Lin Po-Ting, Deputy Director, National Palace Museum, Taiwan; Robert P. Liu, Director, Taipei Cultural Center, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, New York; Manray Hsu, Art Critic, Taiwan and artist Rigo 03.
Afternoon Panel
2:00 pm·5:00 pm, Jack Adams Hall, Cesar Chavez Center
Artists discuss their work:
Conceptual artist Wu Mali with Kathryn Reasoner, Executive Director, Headlands Center for the Arts; Ceramist Ah Leon; Brush painter Chiang Ming-Shyan with Dr. Arthur M. Kao, Professor, School of Art and Design, San Jose State University.
For more symposium information: www.collegeofcreativearts.org
Companion Exhibit: March 14 > April 9
Chronicle: Arts and Artists in Taiwan
Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery
Mon·Wed, 10:00 am·6:00 pm; Thu & Fri, 10:00 am·3:00 pm
Information: 415/338-2580
On view is a selection of works by Wu Mali, Ah Leon and Chiang Ming-Shyan.
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Arts and Artists in Taiwan is sponsored by Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan, Republic of China; Chinese Women·s League, San Francisco chapter, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Cosponsors include Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, San Francisco; Taipei Cultural Center, New York; The World Journal, China Airlines, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Fubon Art Foundation, NVIDIA Corporation, Headlands Center for the Arts, Dimension Performing Arts, Inc., Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery, SFSU, and the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center, SFSU.
ADMISSION AND INFORMATION
Admission to Arts and Artists in Taiwan is free. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. All public events are located on the SFSU campus, 19th avenue and Holloway, San Francisco. Public parking is available in Lot 20, accessed from Lake Merced Blvd. between Winston Dr. and Font Blvd. Parking in the lot is $1 per hour with a $5 daily maximum. For more information: www.sfsu.edu/~parking.
The College of Creative Arts has the only academic program primarily devoted to the creative arts in northern California. Under the direction of Dean Keith Morrison, an internationally acclaimed faculty directs more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students in seven disciplines: art, cinema, broadcasting, music, dance, theatre and design. The College of Creative Arts is part of San Francisco State University, one of the 23 member universities comprising the California State University, the largest system of higher education in the nation. SFSU is a highly diverse, comprehensive, public and urban university. For more information about the College of Creative Arts, visit www.collegeofcreativearts.org. For an application, please call SFSU Admissions at 415/338-1113.
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COMPANION EXHIBIT
Chronicle: Arts and Artists in Taiwan opens in the Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery, March 14 through April 9 on the SFSU campus
The Art Gallery at San Francisco State University is a student-run, student-funded, non-profit space sponsored by the San Francisco State University Student Center Association. The gallery is dedicated to bringing the visual and interdisciplinary arts to the multicultural student body at SFSU through a diverse series of exhibitions by both students and non-students.
Chronicle: Arts and Artists in Taiwan showcases the work of participating symposium artists Wu Mali, Chiang Ming-Shyan, and Ah Leon. These prominent Taiwan-based artists are incorporating traditional Chinese art forms with innovative Western concepts. Each artist presents viewers with an alternative perspective and experiments with their particular media in color, technique and form producing fascinating interpretations of ancient arts forms. The trios· works will enthrall viewers and expose the public to new perspectives and experiences of the evolution of modern Taiwan.
Wu Mali·s Boat Project deals with environmental issues and focuses on modern Chinese urban cultures using local symbols and universal concepts of love and hope. After collecting 5,000 Hong Kong residents· dreams on paper, she transformed them into origami boats and transported these dreams around the Victorian Harbor. Her Boat Project deliberately incorporates specific symbolism to achieve her goal of demonstrating the pressure and anguish of attaining dreams and, therefore, serves to liberate the public·s various ways of expressing love, independence and individuality.
Chiang Ming-Shyan infuses extraordinary color washes with traditional painted scroll landscapes. He recreates historical folk lifestyles and incorporates them with ecological aspects. Chiang·s chronicle of local residents captures the essence of Taiwan·s revolutionary birth and eclectic cultural essence.
Ah Leon·s ceramic teapots reinvent function, design and concept. His manipulation of clay pottery is wood like and naturalistic, and appropriates Bonsai forms creating new meaning to multidimensional structures. His ceramics bridge Taiwan heritage and ecological ideology, as his bark illusions are realistic and meticulously detailed artifacts of Chinese customary traditions.
