Arriving at the Seaport Art Center near Tai­chung Harbor, we take the narrow street opposite that runs through Qing­shui Art Village, housed in the buildings of an old military dependents’ village. After cutting through the first rows of houses and passing between some paddy fields, we suddenly catch sight of the brightly colored image of a marine mammal, painted on the wall of a house in a large compound: this is Qing­shui’s Humpback Whale House.

 

Corn Chen (first right) and friends—behind-the-scenes activists for children’s education—created Humpback Whale House to foster the picture book’s evolution.

A sandbar, a whale and a castle of dreams

Admission to the house is free. Greeting visitors in the main hall is a pair of whale-shaped clouds hanging from the ceiling. This is a work created for Humpback Whale House by Yen Ming Hung, director of the association that founded and manages it. “Long ago, the sandbars that stretched from Qing­shui to Da’an were called ‘hangouts of the big whales’ in Taiwanese,” recounts curator Corn Chen to each visitor he encounters, in order to explain the inspiration for the house’s intriguing name.

The larger and higher of the pair of clouds—whose shape is more nebulous—symbolizes the ever-changing Mother who disperses nourishing raindrops on the little whale below, as well as upon all visitors here.

One entire wall in the hall consists of shelves stacked full of wonderful picture books from Taiwan and overseas.

As visitors continue on inside, they will find several exhibition rooms, one of which is an installation art space filled with butterflies in flight, an eye-catching demonstration exhibit made by Chen himself. He has also created many picture books about the local environment and ecological conservation. Chen excels at three-­dimensional paper art, and taking inspiration from his book Butterfly Hunter, which explores Taiwan’s crow butterflies, he has transformed a castle from the book into a giant pop-up that forms part of the exhibit.

 

The Humpback Whale House’s mission is to offer an in-depth introduction to Taiwanese artists.

Nearly 1000 paper butterflies, handcrafted by female volunteers, dangle from the ceiling. When sunlight showers the room, or when night lights shine, the butterflies play hide-and-seek with the light, and the space feeds one’s imagination. It also serves as a reminder to future exhibitors: displays need not be limited to paintings; artists are welcome to use whichever format appeals.

High-energy coastal area

Behind the transformation of dilapidated military dependents’ housing into a base for culture and the arts, replete with space for the imagination, is a group of fun-loving dreamers, explains Chen with a smile. They care about children’s education and the culture native to the city’s coastal area.

In 2016, this group founded Picture Your Stories@Humpback Whale House, a non-profit association. It frequently invites performance troupes from around Taiwan to take part in seasonal art festivals, and to lead local schoolchildren in painting, drama and handicraft activities in the hopes of enriching their aesthetic education.

Director Yen is himself a specialist in public art. “We wanted a ‘base,’” he once said on a radio show, “a place where children could dream.” Thus was born the idea of establishing Humpback Whale House.

The power of local people was harnessed to make this a reality. Those with the means contributed money, while others contributed their labor. A door panel from the old village became the sign for the Humpback Whale House; a wooden deck was laid around the banana and flamegold trees located in the back courtyard, complete with tables and benches, transforming it into an ideal picnic area. Design, decoration, exhibition planning—everyone undertook the tasks for which they were best suited, and their mutual en­thusi­asm combined to shorten the construction time to just two months.

 

Magical moment: An expression of delight as his very own woodcut print is revealed. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Not just a picture book

The Humpback Whale House’s mission is to offer an in-depth introduction to Taiwanese artists. Each season, it invites a picture-book illustrator to exhibit, and during that period, his or her works are the inspiration for activities. Prior to the exhibition, a storyteller narrates the tale before an audience, after which the creative concept behind the story is analyzed in depth. The illustrator is also invited to share his or her experience, and then a series of themed activities is put on.

The first illustrator to exhibit was ­Chang Hsiu-yu, one of the few artists in Taiwan to create picture books using woodblock prints. Her works, such as Dad’s Friendly Tea Garden and Grandpa’s Glass Shop, are full of love for Taiwan. This exhibition was designed around The Grandmother’s Lantern Tree, a story about sun-drying persimmons set in Hsin­chu’s ­Xinpu Township. The tale revolves around An’an, a city-bred child who returns to his paternal grandmother’s place to help process the persimmons. From initially resisting country life, to the point where he recognizes the affection his grandmother holds for him, and the goodwill present in inter­actions between neighbors, we sense rustic simplicity and warmth. 

During Chang’s presentation, everyone sat around on the floor listening to the tale of a lantern tree, named after its paper-thin fruit capsules that resemble a Chinese lantern. Then the artist explained how woodblock prints are produced, and lastly, each member of the audience got a chance to experience how to make one.

In the moment when the children lifted up the prints they had created with their own hands, delight and a sense of accomplishment showed on their faces.

 

Storytelling time: Everyone is welcome to join in the fun at Humpback Whale House.

“I hope to operate a space where Taiwan’s artists can be seen, and the best way to be seen is through interaction with an audience,” says Corn Chen.

In mid-May, ­Chang Yu Jan’s illustrated works will take the stage at Humpback Whale House. Thanks to his highly detailed style, the beauty of Taiwan’s mountain forests is captured in his picture books, such asThe Forest Where Spring Fairy Dances and Siraya Boy. His newest work, The Little Blue Dress, will be the inspiration for a hands-on indigo print workshop.

Everyone can dream

Humpback Whale House has also created a stage for amateurs to display their art. Dubbed Song of Flight Above the Bay,” the humpback whale painting that graces the front wall of the house is actually the work of a student. Its painter, Lu Zheng­xian, created it while still in high school, and redid it in color during his university days. At the request of Humpback Whale House, in 2017 he recreated it on the house’s outside wall.

 

Drawing and painting are autistic child Lin Yihui’s bridge to the outside world. Beginning in April, the picture book she co-authored with her mother, Mary Doesn’t Speak, is taking the stage at Humpback Whale House.

The exhibition rooms also reserve some space for non-professional creators, who may be children, or adults who are interested in graphic expression. A picture book entitled Mary Doesn’t Speak—jointly created by a young autistic girl, Lin Yi­hui, and her mother Cai Wei­jun—is on display April 14 to May 27. Yi­hui, who is not good at expressing herself verbally, uses illustrations as her medium of communication to bring others into her autistic universe.

Since opening, Humpback Whale House has generated much discussion. The Tai­chung City Cultural Affairs Bureau plans to create an international version that would take advantage of unutilized space within the old military dependents’ village. Asked about Humpback Whale House’s next move, Chen smiles and reveals his “One Child, One Book” vision: He hopes that the house can host a year-long course in which students would interact with the house artists to create their own stories, and the fruits of this collaboration would be published and placed in the house’s collection. Or, artists special­iz­ing in a given domain could be invited to use a student’s original work as a starting point for further creation. How wonderful for a child to see his or her imagined tale fully realized in the form of a picture book!

Through the medium of the picture book, Humpback Whale House—this “experimental base for dream realization”—invites friends young and old to help make lovely dreams come true.