Artwork Appreciation
Artist TU Pei-Shih uses animation as a means to express both fantasies and threats, and how these connect with modern society. In the opening of the short film Another Beautiful Day, two men and two girls are picnicking in the countryside. Above them, clouds, birds and balloons float by, accompanied by pleasant bird calls. It’s like a blissful utopian fantasy. Suddenly, bombs start falling from the sky, instantly destroying the lives of the people on the grassland. Then the flags of different countries unfurl, death and destruction displacing this life-filled utopia. In this piece, Tu ponders the effect of globalization and Western capitalist powers on other countries, articulating the tense state of our current lives through the plot of this short film.