“Tropical Compound Eyes” is inspired by the Southeast Asian folk tale “The Mouse-Deer Crossing the River”, and is created using stop-motion animation by integrating Taiwanese paper craftsmanship and art array concepts. (Provided by Zhang Xuzhan)

[Reporter Dong Baiting/Taipei-Malaysia Connection Report]The Cultural Section of the Representative Office in Malaysia and the Ilham Gallery of Malaysia have collaborated to launch the solo exhibition “Compound Eye Jungle” by artist Zhang Xuzhan. It is Zhang Xuzhan’s first overseas solo exhibition. It will be available from now until On October 6, it was exhibited at the Ilhan Art Museum.

“Jungle with Compound Eyes” was exhibited at the North American Pavilion in the fall of 2022. At that time, Rahel Joseph was invited by the Ministry of Culture to visit Taiwan to see the exhibition. The cultural commonality explored in the work and the well-known Southeast Asian folk tale “The Mouse Deer Crossing the River” became the core narrative. , was deeply amazed, and therefore invited the exhibition.

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This overseas exhibition includes works such as “Tropical Compound Eyes”, “Untitle”, “Wolf and Tiger and Others” and “Lakeview Square-Buffalo and Rat”. Zhang Xuzhan said that the core work of the exhibition “Tropical Compound Eyes” was inspired by the legend of “Mouse and Deer Crossing the River” that he encountered when he was stationed in a village in Indonesia. “Because the story structure is similar to Taiwan’s “Mouse and Buffalo” and the Chinese “Rabbit” Similar to “Crab”, I started with folk tales common to the world and regarded them as a kind of lead. The “paper space” in the work used newspapers to connect my childhood experience of helping to make animal gods at home. It was expanded into an enveloping spatial installation, and students from the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) were invited to collaborate on it. “

Zhang Xuzhan shared that when a local taxi driver learned that he was organizing an exhibition with the theme of “Mouse Deer”, he enthusiastically shared with him the local cars with “Mouse Deer” as the brand name. Zhang Xuzhan was deeply touched by the connection, “It’s very I look forward to seeing how Southeast Asian audiences will feel when they see a Taiwanese artist reinterpret a familiar story using the performing arts format.”

Zhang Xuzhan comes from a traditional paper-making family. Later, he became fascinated by the animation software Flash and came into contact with animation production. Most of his works combine paper-making techniques and combine animation videos with installation art. He revealed that in August this year, he will launch a new work with “termites” as the protagonist at the “2024 Golden Festival Art Festival | Ten Nights of Dreams” joint exhibition to illustrate the coexistence between the man-made environment and nature.

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