Materiality is the starting point of our research. From nearby factories and local craftsmen, we collected leftover materials and unsold inventory, ranging from webbing straps, marble scraps, to even paper flyers from Siao-long Cultural Park. The industries we’ve collected materials from, although seemingly unrelated, have woven an invisible network, supporting the region’s cultural and economic structure.

These collected materials are applied indiscriminately in our sculptures, of which the structure and the form are constructed by plaster and the plain weave technique for their strong relevance to local culture. Plaster was a by-product of salt making while basketry, which could be used for tool repair, was widely seen in households of salt workers as a subsidiary income.

Simultaneously, we set our sights on the stylized balconies from the streetscapes of Jiali. These outward facing balconies play the role of self-expression of the houseowner, painting a tableau vivant of the town. Specifically, a particular type of gridded tiles reappear consistently on balconies from different households, becoming the common vernacular of these multifarious balconies. Thus the formal vocabulary of the tiled grid and the architectural elements borrowed from the balconies of Jiali are manifested in our sculptures. 

Moreover, the balcony, acting as a liminal space that brings the outdoors into the private space, can be extremely significant during the current global pandemic. That’s why we’ve built a fountain, symbolizing a communal space, in hopes to breathe and stretch one’s arms again in the days ahead.

Completed by Wild Thing, an artist collective that consists of me and Yuchen Jao, this exhibition is the culmination of a three-month residency at Soulangh Cultural Park in Jiali, Tainan. Link to exhibition here.