After months of anticipation and work, I find myself less excited than expected when seeing the outsider art exhibition now encapsulated in an art book. This little art book is certainly not as serious as typical academic publications. Yet it carries aesthetic and creative expressions of deep feelings that are difficult to be put into words. A great deal of care and thoughts have gone into the design of this book. Talks from the launch event become paragraphs that introduce the exhibition to readers. Words from authors become the ‘voice’ of the artwork. Photos of dialogues, drawings and ideas from the public become section dividers and the final message of the book.
With many thanks to Marco, who did a superb job in accommodating my strong idea about the format, the colour and front image of the book (as well as the final touch of the sticker with ISBN number in it…). Some people might feel a sense a familiarity of this book, which takes its size and front design from the Café Royal book series. Personally, I think that is just a perfect ideal for this ‘boutique’ art exhibition book. Something I have imagined for the book before it takes its shape.
It is hard to describe how I really feel when I pick up a box of book copies and open it up at the office. A sparkle of joy? A sense of lost? I feel rather at ease, probably because this is really towards the end of the fellowship, with outputs disseminated one by one from the pipeline, as they should be. I am very pleased with how the exhibition went and ended up as copies of book with its spirit and creativity kept ‘alive’ in another format yet distributable and somehow become ‘permanent’. Looking back, I think what the exhibition attempts to deliver is to elicit a sense of self-empowerment in people for the spiritual to be creatively and naturally expressed in artwork, in sound, in spoken or written words, without forces. Spirituality (and all the ideas and feelings below the conscious) reveals itself in different ways that, for some, becomes a source for healing, especially in a world fought with biases, fears and apathies. It is always there, dwelling in the heart that connects all things, people, worlds together with the Universe.
In going through the final design, I have thought a thousand times about how this exhibition really means, for research participants and many others struggle with their mental health. Perhaps not very much. But I remember one of the research participants told me that he, indeed, had found a moment of peace while drawing his heart that has been constantly ‘hollowed out’. I remember very clearly that was one of the interviews where the weak internet signal has made his voice cutting out at random. But I really tried to get to what he was saying. He said: I like to use contrasting colour because I cannot see very well, I have some visual disability. And I thought to myself: ah, so that is how his world looks like. So very bright and vivid, just like his spirit (soul).
For sure, I will be fully relieved when I send these copies to research participants in December because I have promised to share the exhibition information with them! I am not quite sure if I can still manage to re-contact all of them, after almost two years since the fieldwork in Taipei back in early 2024.
Spirituality finds home when love does not speak human languages.
