Main Trend Gallery is going to hold “Strip off, Marilyn Monroe: 2012 Tan Kai-I Solo Exhibition” from March 10th to April 21st. Being educated from academic background; with solid skill and brilliant creativity, Tan Kai-I is an energetic multi-faced artist. After graduated from MFA in Taiwan in 1998, Tan Kai-I also got his doctor degree of Fine Art in Spain in 2010. He has not only the solid foundation of Eastern cultural thoughts, but also the western inspiration. In this exhibition, Marilyn Monroe, The Most Sexy Woman in 20th century, is the main “Symbol” of Tan Kai-I’s productions. Due to the tragic atmosphere was covered by the artist’s humorous display, you have to look carefully into Tan Kai-I’s works to find the hidden expressions like paradoxical, mocking, absurd, and enjoyable under a layer of sadness. The spirit in Kai-I’s work is, in some measure, in common with Bruegel’s “The Parable of the Blind (1568)”. The six blind men walked toward to the hole on the ground without realizing the ongoing encounter with danger. The look on their face was ludicrous and the atmosphere was blizzard, but the work expressed a tragedy and painful message that made the viewers had a tense feeling to the blinds. Charlie Chaplin(1889-1977) was another artist who shared a same information under his performance. By having deep understanding toward the shape of lower society level people, he coined the power of humor in his drama plays and hid tragedy message under it. Though the viewer can experience the tragic information in these works, Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) pointed out the importance of “catharsis” function in tragedies. The catharsis is an emotional purify that can lead society “a pleasure that is harmless.” That is why Kai-I focus on the loneliness and melancholy behind Monroe’s delicate beauty and sexy images. We can see in Kai-I’s work that she is placed mostly by herself, and if there were other characters around her, she shows no care to the surrounding. She poses as she is the only person in the frame. In Kai-I’s aspect, what makes Marilyn Monroe a sexy star is not about her physical appearance but her purity. By reconstructing Monroe’s photos, Kai-I represents the present and surrounding of when the picture was took. It forces viewers to re-exam what is the true purity in the pictures. Kai-I replaces the events happened on the real life of Monroe which we all familiar with by the reconstructed “purity.” He uses a very Avant-garde way that put monochromic colors as base to create a time lapse edge to blur the existence of time. Also, he leave color blanking, like an ink wash painting skill, in his works to give space for the condensed and detached mood to breath. Following the artist’s strokes, the slow movement of time has a trail that could be found by the viewer, and also creates a possibility for Monroe to cut across the reality world and the boundary of time to re-live in the simulacrum one. In the “Strip off, Marilyn Monroe” exhibition, the artist combines his way of reflecting and appreciating life with the well-known Marilyn Monroe together, the outcome is a series of doubtful but purify image. These works provide the viewers a close look of how the artist places the Aristotelian “catharsis” as the most important emotional principle and further create a whole new experience.