《TAIPEI TIMES》 Iwasaki exhibit opens in underground book street

By Chen Yu-hsun and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer

An exhibition commemorating the 100th birthday of Japanese illustrator Chihiro Iwasaki opened at the R79 Eslite Underground book street in Taipei’s Zhongshan District （中山） on Saturday.

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The I Dreamed a Dream exhibition features a 64m display of some of Iwasaki’s drawings selected by author Chang Hsi （張西） and illustrator Inca Pan （潘昀珈）.

The drawings depict children, animals, the moon and other elements commonly found in her illustrations for classic fairy tales and stories, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Thumbelina, Blue Bird, The Little Mermaid and The Crane Maiden.

The drawings are tied together by the themes of “daydreaming” and “sleepwalking.”

Fifteen new Iwasaki-inspired poems by Shuntaro Tanikawa are exhibited alongside 15 of her drawings.

There is also a children’s room created by Japan’s Torafu Architects, where children and adults can draw together.

The organizers want to share good international work with local children, creating an environment that encourages love and reading, and hope that visitors will be moved by the beauty of innocence, curator Lin Hsuan-ying （林萱穎） said.

Iwasaki’s illustrations are always surrounded by a sort of “moving glow” and leave room for interpretation, allowing readers to lose themselves in stories, Pan said.

People think that picture books are for children, but they can also have meaning for adults, because every adult was once a child, said Takeshi Matsumoto, Iwasaki’s son and the founder of the Chihiro Art Museums in Tokyo and Azumino, Japan, on Saturday.

Matsumoto said he hoped the drawings would inspire viewers to remember their dreams as a child.

The exhibition runs until Nov. 11.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES