GEISAI Taiwan Report 8/ Yoshitomo Nara Personal Award

As previously reported, the three members of our GEISAI Taiwan jury - Seiichi Kamei, Yoshitomo Nara and GEISAI Chairman Takashi Murakami – gave out eight personal awards between them.

The recipients of these awards all possessed an overflowing individuality which rivaled the presenters themselves. And speaking of overwhelming individuality, no one fits that description better than our third juror – artist Yoshitomo Nara. Mr. Nara is in fact quite popular in Taiwan. Here is a look at the works he chose for his personal award!!!

●The Yoshitomo Nara Award
Lin Ming-Hsueh


An extremely shy young woman, Nara Award winner Ms. Lin uttered only two words during the entire ceremony – “xie xie”. And yet, she still managed to leave an unforgettable impression with the audience. Ms. Lin turned 34 this year and began drawing after graduating from university with a degree in mass media. She later formed the group “Pentagon” with friends who shared her passion for art and together they created a modest publication which they used to introduce their works. She has also held a small solo exhibition at a café in the past.

Ms. Lin, who presently resides in Taichung, told us that she is not particularly conscious of her career as an artist. Rather, the works she creates are part of her daily life which also includes working part time and attending to a small garden. Every day is a constant alternating between tasks, both those she loves and those she does not. In the process of this quiet life, she says she found her own rhythm and began incorporating that into her paintings. Incidentally, Ms. Lin once exhibited at the Japanese GEISAI after receiving encouragement from a friend in college. It is these experiences which lay at the core of that shy exterior as she quietly expressed her happiness at the receipt of the award!

Lu Chih-Yun

25 year old Ms. Lu is a present day graduate student at Taipei National University of the Arts. According to her parents, she has been active as an artist since the moment of her birth. Ms. 之is an ardent fan of Japanese pop culture and frequently designs her own clothes. The outfit she wore on the day of GEISAI Taiwan was just one of these handmade creations!

By strange coincidence, we’re told that Ms. Lu’s parents once commented that her childhood appearance bore a strange resemblance to the children in Yoshitomo Nara’s paintings. Before the ceremony began, her friends began half-teasingly telling her that she was sure to win the Nara award but Ms. Lu herself was skeptical. When her name was called, she couldn’t help be struck at the mystery of it all, even as she was overcome with happiness. After finishing her master’s degree, Ms. Lu dreams of touring the world as an artist in residence and participating in a group exhibition in Europe!


We have now had a look at the recipients of the Yoshitomo Nara award. Nara’s choices seemed to gravitate toward artists whose creativity had become part of their daily life. While the same is also true of the other exhibitors at GEISAI Taiwan, these two creators in particular were blessed with the support and encouragement of family and friends. Both expressed their fervent gratitude.

Congratulations to Ms. Lin Ming-Hsueh and Ms. Lu Chih-Yun, the recipients of the Yoshitomo Nara award.

For further details on the prize recipients, visit the following web pages.
http://tw.geisai.net/g12/feature/winner1.php

photo/TAKEHIRO SEGAWA(AZIO)