From Show to Exhibition: The Fashion Art Exhibitions of Museum in Taiwan

• Main Authors: WANG, LIN-YUN, 王琳筠
• Other Authors: LIN, CHI-MING
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/31631733995449100364

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 藝術與造形設計學系碩士班 === 98 === Throughout its history, the practicality and consumption elements of fashion has always been the reason it has been looked down upon by the art world. While previously existing as two entirely different entities, the boundaries between art and fashion began to blur as post-modern art started making its way into daily life and pop culture. Pop art does not shy away from appropriating from consumer culture and fashion, making nothing off-limits in modern art, prompting academics to reexamine the items and ongoings of daily life as real symbols filled with cultural meaning. With the rise of new museology in the 1980s, the focus of exhibition planning shifted from the art itself to viewer experience and interpretation. This, coupled with the global financial crisis of the 90s, caused governments to shave the budgets of cultural-related programs, forcing museums to modify their operations and attract enough visitors to stay afloat. In their bid to entice new visitors to their museums, the "fashion art exhibition " was invented. Through a combination of mass media, marketing strategies and cooperation between various businesses, such exhibitions appeal to audiences because of its novelty and easy accessibility by the layman. On the surface, it may seem like fashion is making claims on territory belonging to art, but in reality, fashion is using art to gain status and the seal of approval from the fashion industry in order to prove that it belongs in the classics. According to Pierre Bourdieu's theory of fields, even if “blockbuster” exhibitions of international brands are imported directly, it is the museum that has the last say regarding how pieces should be exhibited. The controlling system of power-knowledge that coined by Michel Foucault further solidifies the museum's advantage; instead of losing power to an outside intruder, the museum gains authority by dictating the terms of the exhibit. This thesis seeks to examine the experience of such exhibits by using examples from Taiwan's exhibits, in particular the exhibition's contents, method of exhibition and properties of space, to outline those developments unique to Taiwan and to examine Taiwan's place in a globalized context. The "fashion exhibit" has become a new genre in art exhibition; its importance and meaning cannot be fathomed solely from the objects (i.e. the clothing) but how they are exhibited must also be scrutinized. The method and visual impact of the exhibition in turn gathers meaning. One important exhibition method is the restoration of the "embodiment ", which induces “haptic visuality” association in the audience to involve them in the experience. The audience can achieve then a certain power balance in the museum's field and combat the modern and post-modern tendencies of flatness and de-actualization, a trend embodied by the explosion of the virtual (i.e. internet), and open up new avenues for appreciating art.