The Yilan County Government on Wednesday apologized after photographing and displaying a sculptor’s work upside down.
Artist Ou Li-ting (歐立婷) discovered the mistake when she attended the opening of this year’s Yilan Awards exhibition on Saturday last week.
Her piece, a 3D sculpture titled Between VI (之間VI), was honored as a special selection.
.Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
However, Ou wrote on Facebook that she was dismayed to discover that her piece was displayed upside down.
She immediately contacted staff to correct the mistake, but then found that the photographs of her piece in the exhibition catalog were also incorrect, she wrote.
When she went on stage to accept the award, the image displayed on the screen was still upside down, she said.
Photo courtesy of Ou Li-ting
“Was it wrong throughout the entire selection process?” she asked.
Ou said she found that this was indeed the case, even though her application form clearly showed the piece displayed properly from multiple angles and it was shipped with photographs.
“How can such a serious mistake have been made?” she asked. “If there are questions about how a work should be displayed, shouldn’t they check with the artist?”
“Such arbitrary placement is disrespectful to the artist and not only distorts the meaning, but damages their rights,” she said.
She contacted the Yilan Cultural Affairs Bureau to fix the problem, but posted about it online because “if I didn’t fix this publicly, I would be tacitly allowing this kind of thing to continue,” Ou wrote.
The bureau said it was “deeply sorry” and was working to correct the catalog after already fixing the display.
The installer was a new hire, it said, adding that future exhibitions would be installed by experienced professionals.
The bureau also contacted the lead judge, Sung Hsi-te (宋璽德), who said that the 3D artworks were judged in person from many angles, as well as from the artist’s submitted material.
As such, the way it was displayed had no influence on the decision, Sung said.
In a statement made on behalf of Ou, Mumu Gallery manager Chang Yi-wen (張怡文) said that correct installation shows respect for an artist and their creation.
This never should have happened, especially as Ou provided guidance on the correct way to display her work, Chang said.
Hopefully by publicly discussing the incident, the awards committee and bureau would adopt a more professional process, she added.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the