Other World

So I'm having a hard time believing that my show is up and the whole adventure is coming to an end. I think this experience has made me realize how important it is to do things in life, hopefully outside of my normal, every day routine. I think every variety of new experience, whether fun, difficult, happy, strange, or what-ever, is an important and good thing.
OK, enough mushy-gushy.
The show opening yesterday went really well. I was amazed by the turn-out of people, and really touched by how everyone seemed very interested and curious. There were a lot of questions and the pieces seemed to make people smile a lot. Here are some images of some of the pieces and the space.

Young-Hsu (Taiwan famous sculptor)

I have always found it a little difficult to explain my work to people, and to explain it to someone who speaks Mandarin is even more challenging, but definitely helps me to think about it myself.

The famous dancer Isadora Duncan once said "If I could explain what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it." This makes perfect sense to me.
Enjoy!

Guess the Food

 In the area I am staying at (around Tainan city), you see many signs like this. For a while I had no idea what this was. I soon discovered this is a picture of a waterchestnut, which are famous in our area. This waterchestnut "patch" was close to our school, so Lung-Chieh took us to pick some up and see the plants first-hand.

The plants grow close together in a bog, and you lift the whole plant up to pick the waterchestnut from underneath. They are all picked individually. The young red ones are crunchy and you eat them right away. The older ones are boiled first, so they are "meatier" and taste a lot like roasted chestnuts. They are delicious.

cracking open the waterchestnuts

each waterchestnut is harvested individually

I told everyone that waterchestnuts are sold in a can in America. They looked at me like I was crazy. I'll never touch a canned-type again, there's no comparison in taste.

Lung-Chieh and Osamu

Something funny, the woman at the stand said 2 American guys were by the stand earlier that morning. She said they wanted to pick some themselves, and they proceeded to strip down to their underwear and got right in the marsh. Americans!

Countdown to show!

If you happen to be in Taiwan on Nov. 19, stop by my show! Eight more days to finish everything. Bring on the coffee :)

Best Green Tea in the Universe

 

This is no exaggeration. We went to Shin Yu's parents farm in the mountains, not far outside of Taipei, and it was like a magical paradise. They grow all kinds of vegetables, bananas, fruit, and the specialty is organic green tea. People come from all over to buy this tea directly from Shin Yu's father.

Shin Yu made the tea for us, and the dried leaves unrolled into the full leaf as they soaked in the hot water. Quite beautiful.

Shin Yu's cup

Shin Yu's studio

Shin Yu's studio is also located at her parents farm. Dreamy. The one tiny little thing that freaked me out a little was the banana spiders, named this because they are yellow and banana shaped. They are huge, and this picture doesn't really capture their size. As we were driving up the mountain, I saw one in its web just hanging there by a tree. Now normally I don't think you can just see a spider while driving. Shin Yu said they are good spiders, as they eat cockroaches. I suppose this gives them a few points in my book.

Yay Taipei!

After non-stop work in the studio for what-feels-like-forever (I know, stop complaining right?) Shin Yu took Yoshi and me to Taipei for 2 days. It was like being freed from...well, not prison, but something that you really need a break from. We managed to cram about a thousand things into the 2 days, and now need a rest from our rest. Here are some highlights:

Everything is sold fresh and whole in Taiwan. No mystery meat. And everything is used.

Dumplings for breakfast. I could eat dumplings every day for ever! Love them!

Po-Ching took us to this secret spot. Thanks Po-Ching!

Temple in Sensia

 This temple is very famous, and has been under construction for 100 years. It was built long before that, but an earthquake ruined a lot of it. So an artist was hired to rebuild it, and he hired only artisans to work on it. Thus it is amazingly crafted with the finest detail, but not finished even after 100 years. It is mind-blowing.

enormous drum hanging from ceiling

new and old

view along the river

I might expect a temple to be on a quiet mountain somewhere, but temples are mixed right in with the cities. So there is a lot of contrast between old and new. Quite amazing.
I'll post the rest of the photos shortly!