Exhibitions

As Small as the Universe

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2016.09.10 - 2016.10.22

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As Small as the Universe

Date:2016/09 /10 – 2016/10 /22
Reception:2016/09 /10 03:00PM – 06:00PM
Opening Hours:Tues - Sat 11:00 – 19:00
Venue:galerie nichido Taipei
galerie nichido Taipei (3F-2, No.57, Sec.1, Dunhua South Road, Taipei 10557, Taiwan)
Artists:WANG Tzu-Ting, HUANG Pin-Ling, WU Chuan-Lun, LIU Chih-Hung, WONG Wai-Yin, ISHIZUKA Takanori, SAKAMOTO Kazuya, KATAYAMA Mari, NORIKO Nieda, UCHIDA Yurika

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Taipei nichido gallery is proud to present “As Small as the Universe”, a contemporary group exhibition with the participation of ten artists from Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong: WANG Tzu-Ting, HUANG Pin-Ling, WU Chuan-Lun, LIU Chih-Hung, WONG Wai-Yin, ISHIZUKA Takanori, SAKAMOTO Kazuya, KATAYAMA Mari, NORIKO Nieda, UCHIDA Yurika. Through the works of these artists, we would like to invite our guests to explore another way of looking at the world by showing various artistic meanings of the word「豆」.


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When used by itself, the meaning of the Japanese character 「豆」(mame) is bean. However, in the book “The Minified Conscious of Japanese people –Legend of Small Mania”, Korean scholar Lee O Young(이어령) mentioned that in Japanese language, the character「豆」(dou) is mostly used as a prefix. Once a word is composed with「豆」, it immediately conveys a minified impression, such as “豆book” that means miniature book, “豆plate” that means small dish, and “豆 potted”that indicates a reduced size potted plant. In fact,「豆」 is not merely used as an amiable rhetoric, it is also a value that permeates everyday life, the cultural creating process, as well as the mindset for a functioning society. Whence further understanding the art of Japanese Zen garden, Japanese bonsai, floriculture, and tea arrangement, we will notice that one of the most important values shared by these activities is to bring the vast nature close to one self so as to feel the very existence of nature in an intimate way; and visualize the invisible order of the infinite universe, for example, by trying to figure out the perfect posture of each single flower.


The Confucian philosophy of “seeking to carry out something to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces” can also be seen in the Japanese myth of “Karano”. In the story, people decided to cut down a gigantic tree and make it into a boat in order to travel farther. When the boat broke down, they burned the body and used it as firewood to extract salt, while the remaining branches were transformed into a wooden zither that could play resounding melodies. Although the huge tree was cut and made smaller in every phase, it`s power nonetheless was able to push forward into an even wider world. Without the burning boat, one cannot reach a farther place; every grain of salt symbolizes another vast ocean; the musical notes benefit from the deformation of the huge tree, since only then could the voices be spread to various corners.

Bringing the above notions back to the exhibition, firstly “As Small as the Universe” would like to address the question of scale in the artworks creation as a means of communication of the artist’s intention. Facing the magnifying contemporary art spaces, making big scale works nowadays is not only a natural decision after a state of inner contemplation, but also a communication process between the space expected to display one’s own work as well as the making of the work itself. For this exhibition we will display small scale works as we want to invite our viewers to rethink the visual relationship between the exhibiting mechanism and the artworks, and also to further imagine the possible differences regarding the creation process when making small scale works. Needless to say, the main purpose of this show is to present the depth and breadth of these artists.


Some of these works delve into trivial daily aspects, while some start from the sceneries or events surrounding one’s everyday life. Still, some others try to communicate within a bigger historical or social context, or even discuss the very essence of human existence. Whether facing micro or macro propositions, the artists were able to use their own imaginative pace to cross over the ridgeline of reality, and open up an ever refreshing world through an artistic language that offers different interpretations to be discovered beyond the lines. Just like 「豆」does not only bear the meaning of reduction, these artworks condensed with layers of meaning not only stand in contrast or confront with a bigger system, they also represent traces of life experiences, and theatre pieces that both collude with, yet distance themselves away from reality.

© galerie nichido