A mountain range drawn from bodies

At Taiwan Spectrum, artist 賈茜茹 asks visitors to trace one another with crayons. The accumulated outlines become a mountain range. I like the ridiculous intimacy of that instruction: bring a friend, lend your silhouette to the landscape.

The exhibition opens October 8 at the National Museum of Modern Art Tainan. Its four sections move through books, painting, plant dyes and sound. The body drawing is where I would begin.

陳景林 and 馬毓秀 offer another way into the terrain. Their natural-dye research involves visiting landscapes, gathering plants and materials, and testing the colours they yield. Their large indigo work 《臺灣母親河》 returns for this exhibition.

There is also a “sketching cinema” that enlarges and animates the colour and brushwork of works from the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts collection, with sound and light by 豪華朗機工, visuals by 夢想動畫 and music by 柯智豪. Give the dye work some attention before following the brightest screen.