A
Draft for pre-recorded interview at Radio Taiwan International 央廣訪談草稿
“how
my art career started”
When
I was young, I was a good writer. I wrote poems and prose. The only
thing I did as “fine art activities” probably is drawing female
figures wearing traditional Chinese costumes from the classical
performance on my textbook.
But
when I grew older, I became unsatisfied with the literature world. I
felt the expression with words is too abstract. I need something
more tangible, more visible. That's when I turned to Art.
My
art career started comparably late in life, around my thirties. I
didn't go to art school. Rather, most of my basic learning about art
is done at Taipei Fine Art Museum. That was last century, the
1990's.
Taipei
Fine Are Museum was opened on the year of 1983, the day of Dec. 24.
Since it is the first museum of contemporary art in Taiwan, the
museum played an important role on holding exhibitions and promoting
art education to the public. I attended several art classes of their
program, and get to know quite a few artists there. Some of the
artists just came back from abroad. They became teachers of this
education program and introduced new trends or concepts of art from
the United States and Europe.
I
was very active then, eager to participate in all kinds of art events
and strive for any opportunities to delve into the art world. In the
following years, I helped Professor Chen Chien-Pei to carry out a
research project on global artist villages and art residency
programs, putting emphasis on the U.S. and France as two different
models for Taiwan. That was the beginning I built a link with artist
village.
Taipei
Artist Village, the first artist village in Taiwan, was founded in
2001. Quickly they started International artists exchange and
residency program. Through the program, I was lucky enough to have
my first international art residency experience in 2004, to
Australia, and over the following years, to India, Japan and Macau.
“what
is my art practice”
My
early art works are videos and installations. I learned video
editing from Internet and made my first video work, by adding up
photos I had taken from the neighborhood on my computer and applied
very simple movement to it, similar to the technique of stop-motion
animation. Then I bought my first digital camera in 2004, and made
another video. That was the one in the final list of the 2nd Taishin
Arts Award, the work "skyway". With this camera, I did
experiments, thinking it as my eye's extension, and being curious
about what would the world look like if seeing from my body part's
angle, for example my palm. So I played Taichi with the camera fixed
on one hand and videotaped the whole round of Taichi playing. The
result becomes the Taichi world of my hand, or seeing the world
through eyes that had dropped to my hand.
And,
…..
“my
experience on public art at Budai & Treasusre Hill”
Life
always takes turns, so does my art practice.
In
2007-2008, I joined artist/curator Wu Mali and her team for an
environmental art project. Artists were sent to the rural villages
in Chiayi, the southwest part of Taiwan, to work with farmers, salt
workers, fishermen and tea growers. That project led me to the
exploration of environmental and ecological art. I wrote 2 books
inspired by the project and based on my experience there.
The
first book is titled “Insights into the Eco-art of Britain”,
which contains ecological art examples I collected through the
introduction of British artist David Haley. As an ecological artist,
Haley has worked with us on the issue of climate change and local
resilience since 2007 in the township of Budai on the Chiayi coast.
That was the story of my second book, entitled “Beyond Dialogue: A
Journey of Transforming Place through Climate Change.”
The
core spirit of these projects is using art as a method to ask
questions, to facilitate dialogue, to involve people in communities
with the web of life, to connect and to make transformation. I’m
very proud of my friends in Budai. Be they farmers, salt workers,
fishermen or filmmaker, they are caretakers of the environment, the
wetlands and the wild species in the meanwhile.
[How
did you end up at Treasure Hill? What do you like about the
community there?]
After
the publication of my first book, I was invited to Treasure Hill
Artist Village to do a public art project. The curator was looking
for projects more environmental and ecological. She encouraged
Italian artist Carlotta Brunetti and I worked together, along with
the non-artist residents. We created organic gardens on several
patches of land throughout the village. One of the biggest is still
under the residents’ care today.
My
focus and
interest turned to ceramics in recent years.
Last
year, I had a joint exhibition with 2 other artists in Treasure Hill,
Kjohn and 不歸路.
Kjohn makes robot models with recycled material, such as electronic
components. Bugrelu is a designer’s brand well-known for its
products made with plant seeds. The show is titled “Microscopic
Forest - the landscape of the south quarters of Taipei defined by
mosses and liverworts” 《三千分之一的城南
─ 苔蘚編織的風景
創作聯展》.
Together
we focus on making individual works that combined with mosses or
liverworts which can be found and gathered from the neighborhood of
Treasure Hill and the surrounding area.
Are
there any art exhibitions you've seen and enjoyed in Taiwan
recently?
“The
world of Tim Burton” at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. I like his
drawings, with free-flow strokes, wild imagination, and striking
color arrangement.
Do
you have any new plans for your art in the future?
I
will continue to explore the mystery of material, such as ceramics,
plants, ferns, moss and liverworts.
What
advice would you share with young artists who are just starting out?
What lessons have you learned throughout your career?
I'm
not sure if it suits everyone, but this is the advice I always told
myself:
Take
courage and be brave.
The word "take courage" is quoted
from famous ABC news anchor Peter Jennings.
I
can't recall when or for what event he was reporting.
At
the end of that report, he calmly said"take courage", just
like to encourage all the audience in front of the televisions.
Somehow
I felt I was cheered up too and remembered that phrase since.
Finally,
the lessons I learned are these: keep an open mind, and keep
learning.