Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Dec 12 2010

Poagao’s first exhibition

Yesterday was the grand opening of my first formal photography exhibition at an art gallery on Dihua Street, a traditional area of old Taipei lined with fascinating restored buildings from back in the days when goods came down the river to unload there. The gallery is next door to some of the only original three-story buildings on the street, so my guess is that was the center of things during the area’s heydays almost a hundred years ago.

Chenbl and I had spent hours hanging the photos and putting up lights, etc. the night before, so I was fairly exhausted by the time I hauled all my instruments onto the MRT and off again at the new Daqiaotou Station, which is nearest to Dihua Street. Lots of people were already there, including several artists hastily working on last-minute adjustments to their exhibits downstairs. My show is on the second floor, and I found Chenbl sitting on one of the stools, traditional Taiwanese music playing on a small MP3 player. The effect was very nice.

I’d forgotten that the stick I used to play washtub bass was still at Bobwundaye’s, so David Chen and I walked over to a shop on the next street over, and found a shovel handle that the owner was happy to drill a hole in. NT$80. Behold, the wonderfully cheap accessibility to washtub bass materials. Make your own! Back at the gallery, we set up in the courtyard out back. Several of my friends from Taipei’s bear community showed up in support, which was nice to see, and some folks from Forumosa, flickr and Facebook came as well. It was all very gratifying.

The Muddy Basin Ramblers were in our element playing unplugged in the courtyard, free to move around and interact with the crowd. It was a lot of fun, though I’m a bit rusty after not playing for so long (I missed the Blues Bash due to a scheduling mixup that was entirely my fault…I was in Hong Kong at the time).

People seemed to enjoy the photos; more importantly, I was pleased to see people, strangers I didn’t know, pointing and discussing various elements of the photos. It will be up for a month, so if you have time, go take a look. The gallery closes at 5 p.m. however.

There was a meeting of the gallery folk, who were discussing a project for Treasure Hill, some kind of lighting thing, so I missed dinner with the rest of the band, unfortunately. I tried to hang around and talk to people. Many were surprised that so many of the shots were taken with compact cameras; the GF1 is well-represented, and some were even taken with the tiny LX3.

I shared a cab with David and Robyn. Back in Bitan again. What a day. Thanks to everyone who came.

posted by Poagao at 9:27 am  

4 Comments »

  1. 今天去看了你的展覽。從你的眼睛看到的台灣,很棒!

    Comment by S — December 12, 2010 @ 6:21 pm

  2. Could you post the address, please. I’m not too familiar with Taipei.

    Comment by Peter — December 13, 2010 @ 10:47 pm

  3. It’s #127 Dihua St., section 1. Just north of the intersection with Minsheng West Road.

    Comment by Poagao — December 14, 2010 @ 7:49 am

  4. Thanks.

    Comment by Peter — December 14, 2010 @ 10:02 pm

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