這場展覽的名字很大氣，全名是《十年的小星球：恩宇的創作宇宙繪畫展 A Decade of Little Planets — Woody’s Universe of Creation.》，其實是一位小朋友的繪畫展，在十年期間所創作的繪畫，至於這位恩宇小朋友 (Woody)，我上網搜尋了半天，沒有太多資訊，總之，這應該算是一場個展吧。
展場內其實沒有太多畫作，不過，和一般藝術展覽不同，這裡沒有太多需要研究半天才能看懂的藝術概念，小朋友的畫通常直接又單純，想到什麼就畫什麼，喜歡什麼顏色就用什麼顏色，有些畫的應該是朋友或家人，有些畫的是動物或植物，也有一些充滿天馬行空的想像，反正，畫畫對小朋友來說，可能不是為了畫得多像，也不是為了參加比賽拿獎，只是單純把腦袋裡想到的東西畫出來。
回到大人的世界，假如要辦一場類似這樣的小型個展大概要多少錢？場地租金大約兩萬多一天，優惠價可能一萬多一天，連續租借七日以上，會有折扣，另外，還有展場布置、畫作裱框、海報、作品標籤、宣傳及開幕茶點等，我猜，有可能價錢會落在十五萬到三十萬之間，為了一個「我也辦過個人畫展」的經歷或體驗，花這樣的錢，我相信，有些人認為是值得的，現在這個時代，想演一部片、想出一本書或辦一場個展，都不是甚麼難事了。
The name of this exhibition sounds pretty grand. Its full title is A Decade of Little Planets — Woody’s Universe of Creation. But actually, it’s a children’s art exhibition featuring paintings that one child created over a period of ten years. As for the little artist, En-Yu, also known as Woody, I tried searching online for a while, but I couldn’t find much information about him. Anyway, I guess you could call this a solo exhibition.
There actually weren’t that many paintings in the exhibition. But unlike a typical art exhibition, there weren’t many complicated artistic concepts that required you to stand there for half an hour trying to figure out what the artist was trying to say. Children’s drawings are usually much more direct and simple. They draw whatever comes to mind and use whatever colors they like. Some of the paintings seemed to be about friends or family members, while others featured animals or plants. There were also quite a few that were filled with wild and imaginative ideas. After all, for a child, drawing probably isn’t about making something look exactly like the real thing, nor is it necessarily about entering a competition and winning a prize. It’s simply a way of putting whatever is in their head onto paper. There’s something quite honest and natural about that.
Then I started thinking about the adult world. If someone wanted to hold a small solo exhibition like this, how much would it actually cost? The venue rental would probably be a little over NT$20,000 a day, although with special discounts, it might come down to a little over NT$10,000 a day. If you rent the space for seven days or more, there may be additional discounts. On top of that, you would still have to pay for things like exhibition setup, framing the artwork, posters, artwork labels, promotion, refreshments for the opening, and various other expenses.
So, my rough guess is that the total cost could end up somewhere between NT$150,000 and NT$300,000. For the experience of being able to say, “I’ve held my own solo art exhibition”, I believe some people would consider that money well spent. After all, these days, if you really want to make a movie, publish a book, or hold your own art exhibition, none of these things seem quite as difficult or out of reach as they used to be.