Public Art in the Taipei Metro System

After discussing public art installations in class, I was curious to find out what public art installations I could find in Taipei, especially since I’m lucky enough to be in a city where COVID-19 isn’t a danger and I can physically visit these installations in person over winter break! I found this article about the public art installations in various Taipei subway stations, a couple of which I’ve definitely seen/walked by lots of times. These stations are often super crowded and see lots of foot traffic, so it’s cool to see that someone has taken the time to install public artwork that is seen by so many people on a daily basis. Here is a photo and description from the article of one installation in a popular business/shopping area of Taipei that I’ve seen very often!

Designed by Taiwanese multimedia artist Hsin-Chien Huang, The Moment We Meet is an installation piece which includes two separate split-flap displays showing 10×10 matrices of happy faces of the elderly and young chlidren. The blocks can join together and be rearranged to form infinite number of facial combinations or stand as an individual face. This artwork suggests that when we meet people during our commute, our emotions spread out to others. 

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