'I'm Having a Grate Time' — My Taiwan Art Exhibition

September 2024, I landed in Taiwan. A few months prior I had been awarded a six month scholarship to study Mandarin, so here I was, ready to learn. Why? Quite simply, I was bored and needed a change. I love to travel and six months in Taiwan seemed like a fun opportunity: a change of culture, a challenge for my brain, and that bit closer to Japan (which I miss immensely). I choose the rural town of Hualien on the East Coast for its beautiful scenery and clean air.

During a stroll around my new neighbourhood I stumbled upon a small arts venue ‘Steve and Doris Art Center’. Steve and Doris.. an elderly American couple perhaps? No, a young Taiwanese couple, their English names chosen by fortune tellers (as is common practice in Taiwan and China).

They were very friendly and we got chatting. ‘What is this place?’ Well, Steve is a guitar teacher, and Doris is a makeup artist, and they sometimes host events such as guided meditations, acoustic gigs, and small art exhibitions in what feels like (but isn’t actually) their living room. ‘Maybe you could have an exhibition here some time’. I wasn’t sure if Steve was being serious...

Before long we were doing regular language exchange, and although I wasn’t making much art, I was observing everything around me closely and getting inspired. In particular, the window grates that adorned every window. Although their primary function, locals will tell you, is burglary prevention, there is definite charm and artistry in the hand-forged wrought iron grilles that come in a variety of patterns and colours.

Sadly, it’s a dying art with many Taiwanese opting for the uglier, but presumably cheaper, prison-like vertical bars. The ones that remain are often old and rusty, with flaking off paint. In this artist’s eyes this makes them all the more beautiful but locals don’t necessarily think much at all about them.

I began noticing and cataloging the different designs (in my brain and in my camera-roll) from day one. ‘I’m having a grate time’ — the name of my exhibition — was a stupid pun that had been buzzing around my head since week one (before my classes had even started and I was just cycling around and soaking it all in).

Skip forward 3.5 months and although the honeymoon period had worn off a bit, there were still grate things about Taiwan* and I’d made next to no art — what a waste! So, I proposed the exhibition. Steve and Doris agreed, and I quickly got started on the poster. I hadn’t completed a single piece at that time, but I knew that without an external deadline I wouldn’t get anything done.

Now, the stress was on — homework stacking up and exams to study for — and now art to make and an exhibition to promote. But make and promote I did. A week off school in January (due to the Lunar New Year) certainly helped, and, come February, the exhibition was live. The end result totalled six pieces, all of which I worked on simultaneously which meant for ages nothing was finished but then suddenly everything was finished at once. This is just how my ADHD brain works, I think.

The work I made this time was a bit different to my usual style. First, the layout was more disparate and spare than usual, informed by the ikebana flower arranging course I took during my first term at Tzu Chi university.

Secondly, I decided to mount things away from the background in order to create a sense of dimension and make a feature of the shadows. I think this made the artwork feel more like a place you could step into and inhabit. Lastly, whilst in Taiwan, I picked up my pencil crayons for the first time in a long time. I mixed these drawn elements in with my usual cut ones.