Yang Mao-Lin’s Journey of the Hero Within
We have gods and devas and buddhas but we do not use them as standards by which to push each other continuously toward goodness and peacefulness.
By Daniel Gauss
Yang Mao-lin once said, “I have always been fond of comics, cartoons and heroes in movies. They are all about saving the Earth and keeping the peace of the universe and the world. In a certain way, they are like devas and buddhas to children, selflessly sacrificing themselves and protecting humanity.” At the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, this renowned Taiwanese artist’s latest show begins with a sudden divergence from this orientation, focusing instead on grotesquely comic deep-sea predators as well as indigenous Taiwanese flora and fauna. The show ultimately returns, however, to the further examination of the heroic and redemptive in the hybrid classical/pop form for which the artist has become quite well-known.
In the exhibition booklet for the show, the curator of Rescues in Time, Gong Jow-jiun (a professor at the Tainan National University of the Arts), points out that although Yang established himself by exploring themes of benevolent immortals and heroes, for the past several years he has taken a detour from political, historical and social art to focus a…
