Exhibitions Now On
Re: Battle City
This exhibition is part of Taipower Kaohsiung Phase III Public Art Project.
"Re" signifies restart and return. In this exhibition, it symbolizes the trajectory of artist Chang Li-jen (張立人), who after fully exhibiting the "Battle City" series at the NTUA Museum of Fine Arts in 2024, and with the works collected by Taiwan Power Company, revisits his own creations based on existing accumulations, further adjusting, supplementing, and advancing. Through animation videos, comics, storyboard manuscripts, scene models, characters, and filming props, this exhibition focuses on the "worldview" constructed by the artist in "Battle City," forming multiple contrasts with the real world between retrospection and renovation.
Completed over fourteen years, "Battle City" is, for Chang Li-jen, a process of exploring the "essence of art." Initially, he pondered what art really is. Can it not be defined too quickly? Are there other imaginative possibilities? He simultaneously explored how an artist creates paths for thinking and perceiving the world, and how to confirm the significance of his environment and era to himself.
The model animations of "Battle City" Parts 1 and 2 and the comic of Part 3 are "by-products" produced during the artist's exploration of these paths and possibilities, akin to some kind of creative residue. Other components of the series, such as scene models, characters, and storyboards, are like nested Russian dolls, merely outputs for making the animation. This means that the terminal works as previously perceived by the public, including animations and comics, as well as the scenes and props from the production process, are, for the artist, "results that were not the main purpose."
Even the artist himself can be said to be a by-product of a specific culture. Chang Li-jen does not seek creative guidance from mainstream art history or discourse. Instead, viewers can discover many subcultural shadows in "Battle City": whether it is the tokusatsu filming technique inspired by the "Doraemon" manga, or the strange tales of the apocalypse and aliens in "World Mysteries," childhood readings presenting peculiar imaginations of the world that deeply fascinated the artist. These childhood reading experiences remain in his memory and consciousness, recombining and transforming into parts of his work years later during creation.
The meaning of the exhibition title "Re" is concretized in the first presentation of "Battle City" Part 1, "Light of Taiwan (New Game+)." In the gaming world, "New Game+" represents the process where a player, after clearing the game for the first time, starts the game again with accumulated experience points, equipment, etc. For the artist, this re-creation is like riding a time machine, deliberately overlapping the present with the past, to respond to and compensate for the self that was once limited by the conditions of that time.
From reshooting and reediting animation footage that was imperfect due to technical exploration years ago, to supplementing story segments deleted due to real-world factors, the artist seems to have restarted the gear of creative life, rolling "Battle City" into the next narrative cycle, continuously opening new paths within the déjà vu of reincarnation.
"Re" signifies restart and return. In this exhibition, it symbolizes the trajectory of artist Chang Li-jen (張立人), who after fully exhibiting the "Battle City" series at the NTUA Museum of Fine Arts in 2024, and with the works collected by Taiwan Power Company, revisits his own creations based on existing accumulations, further adjusting, supplementing, and advancing. Through animation videos, comics, storyboard manuscripts, scene models, characters, and filming props, this exhibition focuses on the "worldview" constructed by the artist in "Battle City," forming multiple contrasts with the real world between retrospection and renovation.
Completed over fourteen years, "Battle City" is, for Chang Li-jen, a process of exploring the "essence of art." Initially, he pondered what art really is. Can it not be defined too quickly? Are there other imaginative possibilities? He simultaneously explored how an artist creates paths for thinking and perceiving the world, and how to confirm the significance of his environment and era to himself.
The model animations of "Battle City" Parts 1 and 2 and the comic of Part 3 are "by-products" produced during the artist's exploration of these paths and possibilities, akin to some kind of creative residue. Other components of the series, such as scene models, characters, and storyboards, are like nested Russian dolls, merely outputs for making the animation. This means that the terminal works as previously perceived by the public, including animations and comics, as well as the scenes and props from the production process, are, for the artist, "results that were not the main purpose."
Even the artist himself can be said to be a by-product of a specific culture. Chang Li-jen does not seek creative guidance from mainstream art history or discourse. Instead, viewers can discover many subcultural shadows in "Battle City": whether it is the tokusatsu filming technique inspired by the "Doraemon" manga, or the strange tales of the apocalypse and aliens in "World Mysteries," childhood readings presenting peculiar imaginations of the world that deeply fascinated the artist. These childhood reading experiences remain in his memory and consciousness, recombining and transforming into parts of his work years later during creation.
The meaning of the exhibition title "Re" is concretized in the first presentation of "Battle City" Part 1, "Light of Taiwan (New Game+)." In the gaming world, "New Game+" represents the process where a player, after clearing the game for the first time, starts the game again with accumulated experience points, equipment, etc. For the artist, this re-creation is like riding a time machine, deliberately overlapping the present with the past, to respond to and compensate for the self that was once limited by the conditions of that time.
From reshooting and reediting animation footage that was imperfect due to technical exploration years ago, to supplementing story segments deleted due to real-world factors, the artist seems to have restarted the gear of creative life, rolling "Battle City" into the next narrative cycle, continuously opening new paths within the déjà vu of reincarnation.
Event Details
- 2026-06-06 — 內惟藝術中心
Kaohsiung's newest arts hub adjacent to the museum district, with screening rooms and exhibition spaces dedicated to film, visual arts, and community programming.