Representation of Gender and Politics: Contemporary Taiwanese Women's Spirituality and Eco-Arts

Abstract

After years of development, Women's visual arts have increased in aspects of its genre or quantity. Women's spirituality related creative works have also provided audiences with more varieties of thinking and dialogic modes. Especially, since 1990s, major joint art exhibitions in Taiwan have pioneered and expanded the exploration, the content of Women's visual arts and their aestheticism. An observation on the exhibitions in three major official museums in Taiwan (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum) reveals the fact that the attempts and efforts of Women's visual arts to expand new models and formats have formed important directions, and have thus constructed an indispensable part of art development in Taiwan. Facing the rapid changes and developments of art scenes in the 21st century, how do Taiwanese Women artists confront the world trend and their situation in life while proposing their own point of view through the artworks? The present paper attempts to sort out the characteristics of Taiwanese Women's visual arts from the angle of Women spirituality. Through a replenishing point of view, the multiplicity to the Women's Arts should be revealed. Through the re-exploration of different Women's arts orient and occident, and reconsider the oppressions and persecutions of female body and mind enforced by the structure of traditional paternal monotheism and industrial science, this paper will provide a spiritual enlightenment to Taiwanese Women's spirituality & eco-political arts.