Robert Turriff

No more translator, Bruce and I are on our own… here we go!!!

Bruce has a mandarin handbook -but it’s useless since Taiwan uses the old mandarin script. Luckily I have an iphone application for mandarin. Even this doesn’t cut it the application uses Beijing dialect, (over pronounced) Someone told me I need to relax regarding my pronunciation - I don’t have to try so hard.

On Saturday evening, the city came alive! There were so many scooters, the sidewalks became full of people, bars opened, and the city took a lively weekend feel. While walking to get dinner outside a temple, we stumbled upon a large group of people rehearsing for a religious ceremony. An elderly gentleman motioned to me to put on the puppet -its kind of like a backpack that makes you eight feet tall. The costumes that we had were armature for costumes that are coved with decorated fabric beneath exquisitely crafted faces. I pointed to Bruce (because he is into this kinda thing being a burning man kinda chap). Then I put one on as well. The cool thing about these puppets was that they were boxing puppets! - You had to get a certain cadence to walk and make them swing their arms in a convincing way. Bruce and I both walked the walk and threw a few punches, but the old men were not impressed. They kept yelling at us to not lean so far forward . Next we were invited to a ceremony in the temple. It’s hard to explain the experience inside the temple, but let me try to sum it up: chanting, epic carvings – beyond imagination, maximalism- totally over the top madness! Young, old, male, female inclusiveness- not your normal religious ceremony! The two puppets were at either side of the temple facing each other down. It turns out that one of the puppets could see for thousands of miles, the other could hear everything.

Sunday morning was a bit quieter than the average day. Businesses opened late and the streets were a bit quieter, or so it seemed until the processions began. Every temple (and there are a lot of them in Tainan) began a procession at around 11 am. There was cacophony of groups moving up and down the streets. Some had dragons and others had shrines supported on the shoulders of participants. They bounced the shrines up and down with horns and drums. At one point in almost every direction you could see a procession!

The studio that Bruce and I have been set up in is a bar called VS Talking Bar. The bar is a narrow two-story structure, approximately twelve feet wide and fifty feet long. On Monday, the steel was dropped off and I started the welder – (unfortunately giving my arms a bit of a sunburn). So finally, after collecting materials for days -and driving around in what seemed like a endless journey (it was maybe a ten block radius) our shop was set up with tools and materials! Bruce and I began creating our artwork. I was cutting steel and setting up equipment. Bruce jumped into his work. We both felt good getting something started at last. The jetlag caught up with us, so we returned to our hotel (a five-minute walk from our studio). I was awoken by explosions (not just firecrackers) but heavy duty ordinance, the bombs shook the window!

Our friend Sharon came to pick us up and we asked her if anything special was happening today? The girls at the front desk giggled and said that there are so many temples- its like this every Sunday.

Bruce and I were invited to the opening of a sculpture symposium that focused on woodcarving. The wood came from the east coast of Taiwan after a storm devastated the region, “The storm dumped 6 feet (2 meters) of rain in some locations in southern Taiwan, triggering massive flooding and mudslides in and around some 40 villages. About 700 people died. Old growth trees are protected by the Taiwanese government. After the storm artists received permission to use this windfall. There was a very similar situation after a storm in Vancouver knocked down trees in Stanley Park. The artists at the symposium were Austronesian, aboriginals native to Taiwan from the east coast. This is where Cease And Tom are staying. The indigenous peoples of Taiwan face economic and social barriers, including a high unemployment rate and substandard education. Many Aboriginal groups have been actively seeking a higher degree of political self-determination and economic development since the early 1980s. This echoes the same challenges faced by indigenous people of Canada. The opening was great. They know how to party! The opening had a pig-roast, beer keg and lots of live music by the campfire. If you know me at all -you know this is my scene! They had live Taiwanese reggae and the aboriginal folksy music sounded very similar to west coast indigenous music.

Bruce buys me drinks based on what the bottles look like not what is inside, he recycles used beverage containers and enjoys utilizing any bottle that has an interesting shape or texture.

More to follow…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Robert Turriff Art Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.