Tainan Art Museum Opens the Gate to the Underworld
Tainan City, also known as “City of Deities”, opens the Gate to the Underworld by hosting Ghosts And Hells — The Underworld In Asian Art.
TAINAN, Taiwan— Located to the southwest of Taiwan, Tainan is the oldest city on the island. In the 17th century, Tainan was an active trading hub when part of then-Formosa was ruled by the Dutch Republic. Tainan also served as the capital city for more than two centuries — from 1683 to 1895 — when Taiwan was ruled by the Qing Empire.
It is probably due to this long history that makes Tainan a spiritual capital. With over 1,6000 registered temples (highest in the nation), Tainan earns itself the nickname “City of Deities”, where Buddhist and Taoist religions thrive.
This summer, the City of Deities opens the Gate to the Underworld by hosting Ghosts And Hells — The Underworld In Asian Art (亞洲的地獄與幽魂), an exhibition that was first launched at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris in 2018. Tainan Art Museum marks the first stop of this touring exhibition in Asia.
Hype or Controversy?
Weeks before its opening, Tainan Art Museum (TNAM) promoted this touring exhibition with an image of the hopping jiangshi, a type of zombies in Chinese folklore that is characterised by its Qing official garment and outstretched arms.
Overnight, this single post on social media attracted more than 30,000 comments. Some netizens expressed their great anticipation for the forthcoming exhibition, whereas others condemned the organiser for “spreading negative energy” with these highly inappropriate and low-class exhibits at a national-level museum.
Like a group of crusades campaigning against the pagans, one religious group even made a public protest, demanding the exhibition to be cancelled. Who would’ve thought that an exhibition, whose primary objective is none other than to shed light on the fears and imaginations of the unknown world in Asia, could end up distressing certain individuals?
Chinese zombies from Ghosts And Hells — The Underworld In Asian Art
Courtesy of Musée du quai Branly
In response to public scrutiny, Director of the Tainan Art Museum, Lin Yu-Chun, claimed that Ghosts and Hells is an extension of its exhibition series “Hommage to the Gods and Deities” (向眾神致敬), which aims to make local customs and beliefs more accessible. Meanwhile, Mayor of Tainan, Huang Wei-Che, embraced the diversity of people’s voices, and encouraged visitors to appreciate the exhibits from an artistic point of view.
It is perhaps the first time in Taiwan’s museum history that an exhibition succeeds in attracting this much hype, which must have saved the TNAM a considerable amount of marketing efforts. Two months into the exhibition, Ghosts and Hells welcomed more than 18,000 visitors, many of whom claimed that it was their first time walking into a museum.
Visions of the Underworld Through Taiwan’s Lens
Ghosts, spirits, phantoms or apparitions are some of the terms that we use to describe the soul of the dead who is often represented as a pale, translucent form. Tales of these invisible force have been passed down through oral traditions and cultural relics for as long as humans have existed.
Inside “Ghosts And Hells — The Underworld In Asian Art”
Courtesy of Tainan Art Museum
Creativity, stemming from people’s fears and imaginations of the spiritual realm, forms the main narrative of Ghosts and Hells. In curator’s talk, Julien Rousseau, the exhibition curator, remarked that rather than explaining the beliefs of these intangible forces, he hopes to present the stories of ghosts and spirits through cultural and ethnographic artefacts, showcasing how these tales came to inspire popular culture, as well as important works of art and literature. The controversial Chinese zombies, for instance, are the fruits of a collaboration with QFX Workshop in Thailand, a studio that excels in special make-up effects.
Ghosts and Hells is divided into three sections: Visions of Hell, Wandering and Avenging Ghosts, and Ghost Hunts. Through artefacts, drama, films, comics and cartoons, viewers can get a glimpse of the intangible spirits who reside in the Underworld and beyond, lingering in the collective memory of Chinese, Thai, and Japanese people.
Visions of hell vary throughout different parts of Asia. In Greater China, imagination of the lower realm, which is based on the medeival justice system, finds its root in Buddhism. One Chinese legend speaks of “Eighteen Levels of Hell”. Another refers to Underworld as “Ten Courts of Hell” as manifested in a set of hanging scrolls.
Ten Courts of Hell, 1895–1945
Courtesy of Tainan Art Museum
Exhibited to the public for the first time, Ten Courts of Hell (十殿地獄圖) illustrates how each of the court, ruled by King Yama, deals with a different aspect of atonement and its corresponding retribution. These images, also known as merit painting (功德畫), would’ve been hung at a Buddhist or Taoist ritual for devotees, monks and priests to worship.
According to Rousseau, depiction of suffering is commonly found in religious art from East Asia, but not in India, the origin of Buddhism. Despite this difference, teaching on the laws of karma constantly reminds mankind that one’s actions in current life determine what happens in future lives.
In traditional Chinese society, ghosts and spirits were often portrayed with ferocious expressions and non-human features. In Japan, however, images of ghost, especially those found in contemporary works of art, have become increasingly anthropomorphic.
Among works of art from Japan, a set of hanging scrolls caught my attention. These paintings are based on the yūrei-zu (or ghost) tradition that gained its popularity from mid- to late 19th century. In Iguchi Kashu’s Painting of a Ghost, meticulous and gentle brushstrokes were used to depict a white-cloaked ghost with sesame-black hair. In another image by Kaitu Urin, also titled Painting of a Ghost, the subject is illustrated in a similar fashion, as if possessing human thoughts and emotions.
Left: Painting of a Ghost, Kaitu Unrin (1845–1919) | Right: Painting of a Ghost, Iguchi Kashu (1880–1930)
Courtesy of Musée du quai Branly
In Taiwan, belief in ghosts is largely influenced by Buddhist and Taoist concepts of ghosts and hells. According to the exhibition text, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945, representation of ghosts in Taiwan was influenced by Japanese aesthetics, namely that of long-hair, female ghosts dressed in white robe. I would argue that this influence came much later when Japanese horror films reached its peak at the end of the 20th century.
What makes Taiwan’s Ghosts and Hells different from the original exhibition at Musée du quai Branly is the inclusion of Taiwan’s perspective. Based on the exhibition’s curatorial narrative, works by nine contemporary Taiwanese artist have been selected to complement this object-based exhibition. Among them, I was particularly drawn to two installations: Deliver by Hou Chun-Ting and Spiral Incense Mantra by Tsai Char-Wei.
Deliver (2017), Hou Chun-Ting
Courtesy of Hou Chun-Ting
Artist Hou Chun-Ting departs from a popular cultural motif, joss paper, which are sheets of gold- or silver-foiled paper made to be used as burnt offerings during ancestral worship. Deliver is an installation made of such sheets of fluttering joss papers. At first, I was curious how did the artist manage to fix these joss papers in place as we see them. It turns out that the papers were actually made of ceramics, allowing this essential ancestral offering to be transformed into an abstract, visual poetry.
A space outside the exhibition rooms is dedicated to the work by Tsai Char-Wei. Titled Spiral Incense Mantra, this ritualistic feast is choreographed with extra-large cone-shaped spiral incense hanging from the ceiling. A closer look at these sculptures reveals the tiny written prayers found along the spirals of the incense, as if the rhythmic chanting of mantra has been engraved into this offering made for the world beneath and beyond. This particular installation went on exhibit at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York back in 2019.
Spiral Incense Mantra (2014), Tsai Char-Wei
Courtesy of Tsai Char-Wei
Museum as a Place For Living Culture
It remains unclear whether it is mere coincidence or the result of good planning that the exhibition period of Ghosts and Hells coincides with the Ghost Month — the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar. In Taiwan, it is commonly believed that the Gate to the Underworld opens throughout the Ghost Month, which ran from July 29 to August 28 this year.
Meanwhile, the TNAM has thrown three cosplay parties at night, where the participants have been asked to comply with the dress code of Asian ghosts and spirits. The museum also prepared 1,000 hand-made peace charm — all wrapped with incense ash from Tainan’s Tiantan Tiangong Temple — to protect nighttime visitors from evil spirits.
Meng-Po Soup by THE POOL cafe
Courtesy of Tainan Art Museum
After the exhibition, visitors can head up to THE POOL cafe for Meng Po soup. Meng Po, literally “Old Lady Meng”, is the goddess of forgetfulness in Chinese mythology, who serves a special soup on the Nai He Bridge to wipe the person’s memory so that he or she can reincarnate into the next life. When served, this mango-flavoured Meng Po soup diffuses a puff of smoke, as if whoever drink this soup could leave everything behind move on to their “next” life.
Though we’ll never be able to avoid the cycle of life and death, Ghosts and Hells prompts us to imagine what afterlife is like. Paying a visit to the exhibition requires some courage not only because of the terrifying objects on display, but having to admit the fact that, sooner or later, we’ll all have to leave our physical body and transcend into a different dimension.
In my view, Ghosts and Hells is a mere survey of the traditions and beliefs associated with the Underworld in Asia, which has been delivered piecemeal. Visitors who hope to gain an in-depth understanding of ghosts and spirits across these different cultures may be disappointed by how little this exhibition has to offer.
But at the end of the day, if we’re convinced by the Buddhist teaching that all phenomena — including this exhibition — are emptiness, the breadth and depth of the curatorial content wouldn’t have mattered. That said, I shall leave us in the soothing voices of Chöying Drolma, whose chanting on the principles of reality may perhaps bring us closer to attaining perfection of wisdom.
The Ghosts and Hells: The Underworld in Asian Art is now on view at the Tainan Art Museum (Building 2), and runs through October 16, 2022.
The online talk “Enfers et fantômes d’Asie — Rencontre autour de l’exposition”, co-organised by the Tainan Art Museum and Musée de quai Branly, was held on August 27 at La Librairie Le Pigeonnier in Taipei City.