I went to the exhibition with friends yesterday. It was freaking cold and drizzling, so freezing that I may forget everything but the unpleasant weather and the unexpectedly stream of visitors.
Upon this exhibition, one walks into the blocks of independent topic from 12 corners of the outer wall. I got a ticket with a digital number which enables you to scan into each corner and leave messages on the ipad located in the center of the exhibition. Woo, high-tech.
The blocks and the hallways demonstrates different items created by various artists, ranging from fashion designers to metallic sculptors and animators. Each shows their ideas (or inspiration) influenced by Jimmy the illustrator. Therefore it can be described as an hybrid of a little bit of everything in the name of Jimmy.
Obviously Jimmy is the gimmick.
Honestly I would say that it is an interesting joint exhibition yet it won't attract much attention or if it did not 'collaborate with' Jimmy.
Anyhow, I like Jimmy's paintings. And I like the way he sees the world and life. My friends and I had a discussion of his illustrations, books and philosophy of life. I'd say, as a book or complete story, 95% of his philosophy is gloomy and melancholy and the rest 5% is a little bit of hope he got, in order to give a happy ending, as everyone would love to see.
The world's not beautiful; therefore it is.
Every character in his stories is either sad, confused, helpless, or troubled. Jimmy's world of illustration offers a colourful cheerful world that shows the irony of the beauty and the ugly of life. The sympathetic sensation in his illustration is sometimes contagious. People easily feel the same way in the simple yet resplendent drawings.
(pictures from JimmySpa.com and the blog)
When I was studying in London, my blog is written in Chinese for the similar reason. So that my dearest reader (my mom) can read it (and make less skype call from Taiwan in strange timing), and my close friend in London would have no idea what it says.
