National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

The room is red, purple and difficult to stand outside. Demons and bodies run around its walls while the projected image keeps going beneath your feet. Hell Realm is not a tasteful dim room with one infernal picture at the end. It is the kind of place that briefly makes the museum corridor seem like the afterlife's waiting area.

Yao Jui-Chung and the new-media collective Hi-Quality began with field research into Taiwan's temple hell landscapes: the frightening, gaudy and unexpectedly cute figures through which punishment has been made visible. Hi-Quality rebuilt that material through 3D animation, printed models, real-time images and spatial installation. The result keeps the moral theatre, folk colour and absurd comedy in the same room.

There is also a 地獄籤詩機, a hell-fortune machine. It draws from the Ten Kings of the underworld, so the judgement comes with a slip you can carry back into daylight. The museum distributes 200 fortune slips a day—100 with each of the 09:15 and 13:15 batches—while supplies last.

The exhibition has been crowded enough for the museum to run timed paper tickets. On weekdays they are distributed at 09:15 and 10:15 for the morning, then 13:15, 14:15 and 15:15 for the afternoon. Weekends and holidays add a 12:15 batch. A ticket permits entry during its time band; it is not a numbered place in a queue, and the room itself holds sixty people at once. Keep the original paper ticket.

On September 26 the room turns from projection installation into a live closing. Yao and Hi-Quality perform with Mong Tong, the brothers whose “superstitious music” samples the synthetic timbres heard in Taiwanese ritual life. The two free sessions begin at 14:30 and 16:00. Advance registration runs September 1–10, one session per person, with sixty places in each; check the live registration page rather than trusting an old screenshot.

The museum warns of religious material, nudity and blood. It recommends the work for ages six and above, with children under twelve accompanied by an adult. The dark room, strong light and sound may also be uncomfortable for some visitors. Photography and video are welcome without flash. Because of the special floor, the room allows ordinary wheelchairs but not pushchairs, electric wheelchairs or other wheeled equipment; ask museum staff about an accessible visit before travelling if that distinction affects you.