A delightful pop art exhibition at the Non Gallery
Yayio Kusama, a famous Japanese avant-garde sculptor, painter and novelist, born in 1929 in Nagano Prefecture (Japan), presents her solo exhibition on the first floor of the Gallery, 4-1 Chang An East Road until the 29th August. The young gallery proposes different kinds of artistic works: the first floor is dedicated to mature and major contemporary artists like Yayio Kusuma; the second floor is more focused on the young generation of modern painters like Joyce Ho. One of the aims of the gallery is to give a chance to young artists to be better known. So the gallery team, who is always searching for new talents, invites them to expose their works. As the art director of the gallery wishes to maintain a high quality in the exhibitions, she has chosen not to rent the place, findings private founds by selling paintings and so.
Yayio Kusama, an eighty years old artist, who lived many years in the USA in the 60’s, has been distinguished by the International Association of Art Critics in 1996 and has received many awards and honors: for example, she was given in 2002, the French ‘Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ (as Officier) and in 2006, the National Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Order of the Rising Sun, and The Praemium Imperiale. Her exhibitions traveled all over the world, showed in such towns as New York, Seoul, Paris, or Venice…
Using psychedelic bright and flashy colors; painting red, green and yellow polka dots on women bodies– one of her obsessions, those colored spots symbolizing the return to the universe of nature as we are constituted by thousand billiards of atoms, like all things on earth-; creating amazing and puzzling bags and shoes – with some very phallic motifs represented by high mushrooms emerging from the inside of a golden or red shoe-, her paintings look like a kaleidoscopic picture of inner self. With this infinite repetition and multiplication of signs, she questions our self on our unconscious, our education, our culture, but also on drug and free love.
Besides those themes, its experiments bring her to question the feminine universe and this mysterious artist, who benefits in her country of a big respect and exercises a considerable influence on the young generation, is to discover even if her works can seem disturbing and surprising to a neophyte. DVDM
Text: F. Dupuy/Art direction: Franck Dimech With Uenping Juan and Jung Shih Chou
« Jumel » had been presented at Gulling Theatre on the third week of June 2010 in a new version: all tickets were already sold out and the audience seemed to be satisfied and pleased by the performance of the two actresses.
Because the stage design was reduced to a table and two chairs, one could appreciate the focus on the very precise gesture of the actresses in their acting, without any troubling or disturbing elements as one could have seen in the show as it was presented in France. Played in Taiwanese and in French, the theatre play seemed to get a more dramatic intensity, driving the actresses to a more fluent acting way. One could follow with a mystified compassion and an attentive empathy the story of these two weird twins.
The text –even the author did not write it on this purpose- has been put on stage as an allegory of the History between Taiwan and Mainland China. A very creepy and peculiar link connects the two countries: this kind of relationship where hatred and love are part of the same feeling. One could read the sharpness of their linkage, their likeness and differences, their fight for wealth against poverty… The history shows a very Hegelian master-slave attachment between the big brother and the little island.
And the new art direction is, for these reasons, more interesting even a little bit more polite than the French one. But, we recommend it to the audience as it has all qualities required to be a very good show with two beautiful actresses. DVDM
Dans la solitude des champs de coton B.M. Koltes By M. Wing Company Art Direction: Huan Hiusi Li With Yen Ling Hsu, Fa, Ching Ju Wei, Fsaye Leong and Hsuen Huei Shih
The art director decided to present a weird version of the well known theatre play written by Koltes, a french author who often writes about violence. The violence that is all around us in most of western countries is something very far from the one we can live in Taiwan: for example, in western countries, one has to be very careful: so many robbers, aggressions of all kinds, including fights and guns… Every day, in the subway, in the streets, at any time, day time, night… A more physical violence than in Taiwan where the violence can be qualified in more symbolic terms if I dare say…
So, the story is about a drug deal where the compromise between the consumer and the merchant (here, played by 5 actors on stage showing different kinds of relationships between a consumer and a merchant, somehow a good idea) turns into a verbal then a physical fight because for Koltes, even if we prefer a non violent talking, we can’t help concluding our disagreement by a fight. As Hobbes explained it in ‘the Leviathan’, it is human nature to be a wolf to the other. So, it is a hopeless and clear point of view about society that Koltes demonstrates in his theatre plays.
The Art direction, with a stage design reminding us the french ghettos in suburbs (a very interesting work), is quite odd: by adding songs (to be honest, the songs were not so useful to the understanding and makes the audience lose the main idea of the topic) and a very figurative choreography (a very ‘kung fu’ like dance with slows and stops representing the final fight, beautiful but not so significant), one could think that the art director was more interested in the symbolic violence of the play more than in its first reality that is to say the daily existing physical violence and one could see it in the way he directs the actors.
Their acting was too polite, even when they disagree: the upset merchant played by Hsu Yen Ling – even she is a very good actress – did not look so offended (no real explosion of anger) thought the scene, at this very moment, is a really violent one: it shows the beginning of the end of the well-mannered compromise, the beginning of an unspeakable fight between the two characters, like a translation to war. However, Fa (a more perverse character that suits him well) and Miss Shih (the youngest one looking like a ‘wild dog’) were good in their acting – one could notice the vivid gesture of Miss Shih who promises to become a good actress-.
So, as far as I am concerned, I did not find the show so close to Koltes words and have to admit I was a little deceived by the point of view of the art director even the audience seemed to like the show in its symbolic representation of violence.
DVDM
Presented in june 2010 at the NTCH, Experimental Theater, Taiwan
Adapted from Baudelaire’s poems By The RIVERBED THEATRE Art direction: Greg Quintero With Felicia Huang, Li Mei Chung, Heui Ling Jan, Su ling Yeh,
Gillian Hemme, Guy Magen and Cheryl Quintero
June 2010/National Theatre, Taiwan
Avignon off 2010
Welcome into the depth of the flowers of evil
Greg Quintero is with Su ling Yeh one of the founding members of the Riverbed Theatre and with this new creation, he proposes his own reading of Baudelaire, showing to the audience what is hidden behind the words. The show is inspired by surrealism and onirism, Shakespeare and Edgar Poe. Without any words, except two poems declaimed in a ‘grave’ atonal voice (among them,the Spleen) and another one named La Charogne said in a more cheerful voice by Greg Magen, the director of Centre Desnos in Paris, who appears suddenly on stage, the skirt half open, as if he were leaving his lover after a burning night.
During the show, we can follow the tragic destiny of the romantic figure of Ophelia, the drowned deceived lover, embodied with an unusual and delicate sensuality by Felicia Huang in a blue nineteenth century dress, facing her despair with a white empty look, becoming Hyppolite’s lover in the scene where Su ling, dressed like Greek heroes with a brown tunique, stare nearby his lying lover. The scene reminds us one of the forbidden poems Baudelaire wrote.
Between two scenes which makes us think at Pippo Delbonno Creations, we can see different strange characters, among them, the girl with a white and red dress, hiding a knife and pretending to suicide herself with the knife and gas; another one carries some black earth, symbol of death and lost; the Mother, incarnate by Gillian Hemme, whose words flows as the barking desolation and misery of a crying dog, whom fate is to see the death of her beloved daughters.
In a very symbolic way, the show presents different kinds of lost and death, one of the main topics of Baudelaire who always saw in each woman the putrid body she would become. And the music, like in Portishead songs, offers to the show a puzzling and mystifying atmosphere, both heavy and soft, awe and odd as death can appear. So, even the reader addicts can be deceived by the show – not so many poems declaimed-, one can’t agree with the very deep qualities of the creation itself, both in the respect of Baudelaire thought than in the stage acting: one can notice the beauty of the stage designing made by Joyce Ho and the cleverness of the art direction in showing Baudelaire’s obsession in women – the face of the bad mother and the bodies of the beloved ones- and in the understanding of Baudelaire’ Spleen.
Mortal memories, Dark pleasures of the flesh, under the sight of Eros and Thanatos, beyond all words… .DVDM
REMIX Hsu Yen-Ling + Sylvia Plath By BABOO LIAO/With Hsu Yen Lin, Ming Shuai Shih
Scriptwriter: Man-Nung Production: The Wild Shakespeare Sisters Group (TAIWAN) AVIGNON OFF 2009/Length of the Show: One hour
Disturbing monodrama …
The poet Sylvia Plath is an American poet who committed suicide at the age of 30 by poisoning herself in the gas. The author describes in her poems and novels the distress which animates her, the despair which haunts her, the madness which watches for her such a chronicle of the suicide announced, in a society and in a period when the feminine genius was crushed by the male dominion. The young lady had been marked in life by the rough death of her father while she was only eight years old (the fervent need to write took her at this age) and suffered from mental disorders having already driven her to a first attempt of suicide (thinking that the suicide was the best means to annihilate the world).
She met in 1956 Ted Hugues, English poet, whom she married very fast and of whom she had two children, forgetting herself completely for the benefit of Ted’s work which she supported and defended ardently. To her confides the connection of this last one and betrayed, decided to leave him, the anger and the despair caused by the death of her love making her take back the road of the writing, the pain exciting her poetic eloquence in the neo-feminist consonances, even special ( her poem » Lesbos » ). Her poem « Daddy » is symbolic of her relationship to the father, her hatred for her father having abandoned her so early and for the father of her children, this Nazi who betrayed her. The voices of the solitude, the voices of the pain / Bang in my back indefatigably, she writes in « three women », haunted by the idea of the death of the imagination. The winter of 1962-1963 was Rough and she fell ill, to the point that the fever seized her body and to the point that she wrote her last poem » The edge « , lucid on her mental disorders.
The creation
The show, presented on the condition of silks, by the troop Of Shakespeare Wild Sisters Group, entitled the monodrama of Hsu Yen Ling, is a rewriting inspired by the poem « Fever 103 ° », telling her last night before she committed suicide. The Taiwanese troop presents only a part of the show, where Yenling interprets with ardour and sensuality Sylvia Plath. Also, the scenography constituted by a bathtub filled with water – On which are thrown subtitles of this creation said in Chinese, in front-stage side garden- and a chair – in bottom of stage side- course is not the original one. This last one is constituted by an inclined plane curved, cut by a base line (wide opening was bounded in bottom of stage by a door and on sides by the inclined plane, was replaced here by the chair) and a gaping hole (replaced here by the bathtub). Highly more symbolic and suggestive …
Projections videos flood the wall of the bottom of images in the well realized graphics and the shots of Yenling on stage, like vjaying, the dark, fragmented and collected images, following the example of the Sylvia Plath’s disturbing poetry, drowning itself in the stream of words, belched words, shouted, thrown in feed to our ears, by Yenling, heart-rending and torn by this disturbing character, oscillating between roarings and whispers, between apathy and ecstasy, between love and hatred, attraction and refusal of the love, the fascinating death. The sound track as for her is not without reminding David Lynch’s universe.
The realization
The show was specially conceived to bring to the foreground the unmistakable talent of Yenling, Taiwanese actress and director, recognized in her country and taken on an aura numerous duly deserved prizes. Yenling – who in this piece really puts herself in nude and in danger- is striking of truth so much her play is animated of one internal strength, of a fire consuming her being, until the forgetting of one … The actress merges with the woman whom she interprets, whom she becomes the time of the show. With humility and talent. Even a point of humor which does not leave us indifferent, in particular when dressed in a red dress, she welcomes us, calling to the spectators with amusement and a feigned innocence … Such a wrongly unsuspicious woman-child asking us softly « draw me a sheep »!
The stage setting is not in rest: it seems to have been conceived in the style of a poetic breath, through the rhythm of the words, the silences of the language and the body, letting burst the power of the sentences joining the space, resounding in the ears of the spectators moved by this long poem which distils with subtlety the purity and the violence of the feelings. The stage setting plays on the complementarity / opposition of both characters on the stage: the figure of the male (the father/the husband/the lover) and the figure of the woman (the daughter, the wife, the mother and the mistress) without falling into Manicheanism. The flexibility of the play of the comedian, his placidity and his quiet strength contrast harmoniously with the violence, the heat, the madness of the play of Yenling, all in break and whom gestures are nevertheless precise and not muddled. She shows a big master’s degree of her art and it is difficult at times not to hold one’s breath. Not to be moved by this alliance so successful between the writing, the realization and the performance because even in the hardest passages of the piece, nothing is free, either the indefatigable repetition of the same words, or the dangerous game of Yenling / Sylvia with the razor. And a mixture of fear and fascination seizes us at the conclusion of this highly symbolic creation where the cruelty of the world, the life, the love burst out… Disorder, confusion, seizes us. At the end of the piece, we wonder about the place of the woman in the society, the always existing dominion (unfortunately!) of the male on the woman, the symbolic violence exercised on the so called weak sex, the patriarchy… But also on the sense of the life, the death, that is what to be, to exist, to live, to love, to create? And why? For whom?
In fine
Except the love, there are very few things, said Sylvia Plath who dedicated her life to her love and the poetry which bursts out of the suffering of her lover’s loss. Love, this universal and eternal subject which inspired so many poets.
I would finish with this shakespeare’s sonnet :
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Diane Vandermolina
Production: The Wild Shakespeare Sisters Group (TAIWAN)
AVIGNON OFF 2009/Length of the Show: One hour
A red-hot mono-drama
Remix, Hsu Yen Ling’s mono-drama, is inspired by fever 103, a poem written by Sylvia Plath. She was an American poetess haunted by the idea of death, who killed herself, despaired by love, when she was 30. Hsu Yen ling, fascinating and disturbing, plays magnificently and brilliantly Plath’s character: she becomes completely this hurt woman, wild animal tortured by abused love and sickness. She’s belching, yelling, sighing, murmuring with fervour, violence, and despair the poetess’ words, rewritten by Chou Man-Nung – young Taiwanese author- like a theatrical poem. Baboo’s art direction is very rhythmic and spread intelligently and soberly the poetic whisper of this tortured writing. It swings between foolish and indolent scenes, showing the ambiguous relationships between Plath and her father, Plath and her husband, both beloved and hated men of her life. The spectator becomes the witness of the actress’ inner thruth revelation : Ms. Hsu defends body and soul this American author unknown in France. Ms Plath used to live into her husband’ shade, a famous poet, and suffered from the cruelty of a patriarchal society. Let’s hope this piece will be played one day in Marseille, at the theatre of Merlan, or the TNM La Criée, or anywhere else.
The Puppet and its Double experiments again the success they had during the Off Festival in 2007. A deserved success according to their high mastery in the art of puppets: accurate gesture, dexterity in the moves, subtle feelings in harmony with the jazzy music, lullabies, or piano. The art director, Ms Chen, had created for our great pleasure a beautiful and poetic show, delicate and sensitive, around the tragic theme of death. Different characters stroll on a small black covered stage specially made for those tiny beings. Four puppeteers and their incarnations, beautiful puppets similar to Giacometti’s, come after one another, discuss, squabble, play, love and die, telling without words their life made of everyday things, great events, meetings and losses, love and death…
From scene to scene, we discover a wonderful world inhabited by ghosts. The monkey man, dragging around a suitcase bigger than him, will find death with his peers at the zoo; an old lady will be eaten by her carnivorous dog, the funny bird-man and his bird looking for freedom, which was devoured by the dog ; a mother will search for her drowned son in the waters.. We will meet likeable characters, funny and fated to die, as we all are, as this couple in love that will be carried by death to the grave, a funny and delicate scene reminding us the Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. Death is presented on all its sides, arising anywhere, at anytime, gate crashing our life. A very special guest not always desired. Nevertheless, in spite of the tragic theme of this marvelous creation, we are laughing about these cartoon characters, and our heart is crying at the sight of this woman whose son was taken away by waves, her sadness reminds us « Sister Angelica » in the Puccini’s Opera : with the music of Chopin, we think about this wonderful and gripping tune… Senza mamma, tu sei muorto… An instant of rare beauty is when she flies away with her son, dancing in the sky, or when she’s waiting for the train, her skirt floating in the air.
And we leave this world, smiling, happy, with hope, because that’s life, and maybe there is something after? The emotion still grips us and we are plunged in a transcendent vision of death, a transcendence that is chasing our most profound fears. And even if it feels unfinished, we can only applause this magnificent work.
Yi-Hsiu Lee’s creation is a mix of legends, folklore and contemporary art; unrolling like ancient papyrus the story of Hanpa the Cursed, a Goddess expelled from everywhere by humans and Gods. She leaves behind only desolation and dryness. The show mixes traditional Chinese arts – Lee is well known for his high quality interpretations in Chinese operas – and contemporary art: manga-like fights between two Gods, tap dances combined with ludicrous acrobatics, even puppets! The production of this myth, full of references to our chaotic times, suffers unfortunately from a lack of fluidity caused by the subject itself – the myths brokenly cross through time – and probably by Lee’s desire to present in a short time-space the extent of his mastered art. Nevertheless, the show is skillfully interpretated and offer us really nice theatrical moments, spreading with humour, poetry and wonder a little known legend in France. Due to subtitles and the effort of one of the actors, a large audience may appreciate this creation.
Nuwa is a creation of the Taiwanese choreograph Shang Chi Sun who mixes skilfully with harmony dance and theatre. Three characters are in this piece: the first one is a pianist who is dancing for the occasion and interprets us a improvised song on a piano taken to pieces, playing on each element, drumming with his palms, with the chair, pinching the strings of white and black piano keys. A woman, Nefelli Skarmea, and Shang Chi Sun, who guides the artists with love, are dancing in harmony with the music. Both are wearing a golden sheet on their faces and the three characters are raising up to life, from one to the others. As they were one originally. Man, woman, duet, trio… The theme of this creation is life, hatching of life: Nuwa is a Goddess of Life, representing male and female, sister and brother, parents… And in his choreography, Shang Chi Sun shows us intelligently and subtly the different sides of the Goddess. The supple and aerial move contrasts with the play on the ground, the frivolity allows a dive into life and death surrounded by finesse lights. With the mix of theatre expression, flexible acrobatics, and graceful dance, this creation visually wonderful offers to spectators series of strong emotions, the beauty of the show transcends words which come naturally at the end to close this presentation, discovery of the world and the peer.
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The creation
The show was specially conceived to bring to the foreground the unmistakable talent of Yenling, Taiwanese actress and director, recognized in her country and taken on an aura numerous duly deserved prizes. Yenling – who in this piece really puts herself in nude and in danger- is striking of truth so much her play is animated of one internal strength, of a fire consuming her being, until the forgetting of one … The actress merges with the woman whom she interprets, whom she becomes the time of the show. With humility and talent. Even a point of humor which does not leave us indifferent, in particular when dressed in a red dress, she welcomes us, calling to the spectators with amusement and a feigned innocence … Such a wrongly unsuspicious woman-child asking us softly « draw me a sheep »!
