LI CHIEN-YI

1996

The artwork "<Temple Fair Variations>" draws inspiration from the popular culture of Taiwan's folk religious rituals, depicting a Taiwanese opera stage used in the worship of deities. Employing an expressionistic style with strong and coarse contour lines, it portrays a satirical scene of aging and outdated Taiwanese opera performers, who are leaning forward, wearing red robes, and holding magic wands, symbolizing the impact of changing times and the decline of traditional Taiwanese culture. In the painting, there is an electronic float girl wearing a beauty pageant crown, vivid makeup, and completely nude. She is playing a suona (a traditional Chinese musical instrument) with her mouth, with her right foot half-raised and stepping on a toppled shrine, crossing over a fallen god statue, displaying an irreverent attitude. The Western clown in the artwork, holding an Eastern Noh mask, appears particularly out of place on the stage of this Taiwanese indigenous ritual. In the background, an elderly figure and the wide-eyed child beneath them, along with the innocent girl on the left, represent the grassroots forces that uphold local culture, watching as the mainstream culture rapidly erodes.

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