Monday, November 17,
2014
Lu Mu-jen and Chiao Sheng-wei collaborate to create artwork inspired by
aliens and creatures from earth — all in the hope of spreading a wider message
of peaceful
coexistence
coexistence
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Lu Mu-jen (呂沐芢) and
Chiao Sheng-wei (焦聖偉)
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Lu Mu-jen (呂沐芢) and Chiao Sheng-wei (焦聖偉) are childhood best
friends and artists who are out of this world. Their collection of artwork
depicting various alien, plant and animal life forms intertwined inside
UFO-shaped single-celled organisms is currently on display at Frees Art Space (福利社) in Taipei’s Zhongshan
District (中山).
When asked if they believe in aliens, both
artists responded in the positive with blank looks on their faces which read,
why is this question even being asked? Lu has never seen an alien in real life,
but Chiao says he’s seen something that looked like a UFO when he was at
graduate school in Greater Tainan. Despite their different experiences though,
both artists steadfastly believe that life on other planets exist and use this
as inspiration for their newest collection, the Euglena Program of Art.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
The artists were putting the finishing
touches on their latest addition to the collection, dabbing paint on their
canvas in near-perfect sync as photographers snapped away and reporters
scribbled in their notepads. Lu and Chiao never discuss what to paint
beforehand. Their style is impromptu and organic — they simply pick up their brushes
and see where the painting takes them.
“It’s like we are having a conversation
with each other but with brush strokes, not words, and it’s exciting not
knowing what the next brush stroke or what the end result will be” Lu said.
Communication is one of the key messages
in their artwork. Within the earth itself there are numerous modes of
communication, many of which are not discernible to the human eye or ear.
“Take dolphins for instance,” Lu said,
referring to the dolphins in many of their paintings. “They are highly
intelligent creatures who communicate through their sonar abilities.”
The Euglena Program of Art is essentially Lu and Chiao projecting this
logic onto canvas. As Chiao says, “no one can yet prove the existence of
aliens, so we feel like we have to express it through art instead.”
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OTHER-WORLDLY BUT DOWN-TO-EARTH
From afar, the Euglena Project of Art
resembles colorful UFO heads. Up close, it’s more of a mish-mash of animals,
organisms and elements thrown together — dolphins that swim upstream, cats that
smoke cigars and aliens that sprout eagle-like wings. And yet — maybe it’s the
random smiley faces interspersed throughout almost every painting — it just
seems like everything is coexisting in perfect harmony, or at least, the
different elements are trying to understand each other.
“We draw such animals and aliens
altogether because they are all very smart creatures,” Lu said.
He adds that he and Chiao both grew up
loving the abundance of nature in Taiwan and watching all sorts of television
shows and movies. As a result, their art has been influenced by four main
tenets: aliens, nature, environmental issues and human beings like Bruce Lee (李小龍) or Michael Jackson who
have changed the world in a positive way.
“Such a combination is not possible in
real life, but in art, it’s possible,” Chiao says, “therefore, our paintings
represent a type of hope.”
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