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July 6, 2014

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Artist’s backward path to success

IT is said that the eyes are windows to the soul. However, Page Tsou, an illustrator born in Taiwan, has taken the traditional notion of portraiture and reversed the subject for a whole new perspective. He also uses the rear view “The And” as the logo of his workshop.

Tsou said the idea of “The And” came while he was working on a project called “30 Days of Londoners” for the London Underground in 2006. Every day he sat on the metro to draw faces of people. After drawing some 3,000 faces, he started to wonder why people always focus on facial features rather than the back of the head.

“People tend to rely on the facial features rather than the back of the head to tell what kind of person you are,” Tsou said, “But what they see on the surface may not be true. Sometimes, the nature of things could be hiding just on the other side.”

Born in the central Taiwan city of Fengyuan in 1978, Tsou went to the Royal College of Art in London in 2004. In the winter of 2010, the RCA graduate held his first solo exhibition of “The And” at the Badlambs & Sons Barbershop in London.

In 2012, Tsou published his first book of illustration, entitled ”Brave Tin Soldiers,” by the Spanish SM Publishing.

Tsou will join the jury panel of the Young Writers’ Debut Competition held by Sun Hung Kai Property Ltd Reading Club this year in Shanghai.

Q: What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

A: Last time when I flew back to Taipei from Shanghai, I bought a Chinese version of “The Little Prince” by the great French writer Antoine de Saint Exupery at the airport bookstore. “The Little Prince” is a very simple story that conveys deep meaning. Every time I read it, it brings me back to my age of innocence.

Q: What books do you find yourself returning to again and again?

A: I will read some of Haruki Murakami’s books again and again. Most of his writings reflect the views of people living in this era. In Taiwan these years, we often hear people talking about those “small and assured happiness,” which is a saying coming from a Murakami essay collection.

Q: Who is your favorite writer of all time?

A: I have always liked “The Blue Bird” by Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck. The story is about a girl called Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl seeking happiness. A simple story as is “The Little Prince,” it reminds us that happiness is always at our side, only that we can’t feel it.

Q: What kind of stories draw you in?

A: I am a great sucker for biographies on inventors and designers, such as the Eames or Herman Miller. Books on them make me see how they put their creational details into practice. How a traditional furniture company such as Herman Miller’s got successfully transformed into an iconic designer for office chairs and desks. Transformation is the key for the development of society as a whole.

Q: What is the most impressive children’s book you had read as a child?

A: As a child, I liked the illustration book of Pinocchio. Nothing was more attractive than the mischievous adventures of the animated marionette, whose nose grew longer as he lied to the Fairy.

 




 

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