The original life force of nature has enabled us to weave all sorts of connections with life. Tribal craft artists, architects, and friends who like handmade crafts, gather together to collect simple materials such as bamboo, rattan, and bark cloth to create works using local material and ancient wisdom.
Pacific Diffuse．2020
Living in Hualien allows us to experience daily the first light of dawn and the rising moon, the magnificence of the mountain and the sea, and delicate humanity and the arts as well as the rich tribal characteristics. Nature along with the people here in Hualien creates a special kind of living pace and rhythm, which we define as .
Through Hualien's unique natural quality and rhythm, the profundity of humanity and the momentum of the craftsmanship will guide the viewers to interact with the five physical senses and regain the natural rhythm of each person's inner spirit.
- Moonlight stage
heated bent bamboo tube, bamboo weaving, vegetable-dyed fabric, iron parts
stage：Length 5m*Width 2.8m*Height 3.2m+Bamboo screens on both sides
With the scenario of the rising moon above the Pacific Ocean, it aims to provide a daily performing stage for splendid musical performances by the moonlight.
The stage consists of bamboo scaffolding with a half-moon shaped dome covered by the vegetable-dyed fabrics, allowing performers to sing under the woven bamboo dome as if in between heaven and the earth and above the ocean.
- Light, the rising place
heated bent bamboo tube, bamboo weaving, vegetable-dyed fabric, iron parts
Length 8m*Width5m*Height4.5m
The light of life rises through layers and layers of shields like crowding sails in the Pacific Ocean.
It is the start of light, the Mother Earth, the fruit of life, and the strength and transcendence of the inner light that diffuses like ripples. The outer layer is intense and primitive, the middle tender and firm, and the inner pure and sublime.
- Island Constellation
drilled and lighted bamboo tube, bamboo platform
Length 5m*Width 2.8m*Height 0.8m
In the Hualien Coast, tribal people like to make a woven bamboo veranda in front of their homes where family and friends can sit and chat; it is a place for casual gathering and exchange of ideas and thoughts.
His work is inspired by the Amis Sasa and the life experience of Kavalan. Sitting on the bamboo veranda surrounded by the colorful translucent bamboo tube light and the sound of insects chirping, the Island Constellation attempts to simulate the tranquility of the east coast under the lofty star-dotted sky.
- Ripple of Waves and Movement of Tides - Gifts from the Forests and the Ocean
Hualien East Coast Thorny Bamboo, Margaret Rattan Palm, woven crafts of Sanku
Length 7m*Width 2m*Height 3m
The formation reflecting the Kavalan Sanku is composed as one single unit. It implicates the Kovalan fishing and hunting culture nurtured by the aboriginal forest and the sea. The twisty whirling resembles the fluctuations and impulse of Nature, which in turn also brings nourishment to life.The migratory fish in the Pacific Ocean swims leisurely and glides through the Sanku.
PateRongan: Settling Down．2018
- Material / Bamboo, Margaret Rotang Palm
Using natural materials such as bamboo, Margaret Rotang Palm, cow dung, twitch grass, straw mixed with mud, stones used by the Kavalan tribe to build houses, PateRongan invites tribal members and those interested in building houses and crafts with natural materials to participate in this event held in the paddy fields of Xinshe, working together to weave the imagery of home. Building a landscape composed of houses of different sizes and materials, the space expresses the connection between the residents (members of the Kavalan and Amis tribe) and nature, as well as their harmonious lifestyle; this is also the scene of indigenous people living in harmony with the mountains and the seas.
A Woven Hallway that Penetrates the Forests and Time．2016
- Material / Bamboo, Margaret Rotang Palm
As a footbridge within the park, this work is also a hallway of connection, welcoming the wind from the forests of the ancient Ai-Liao River tribes, expressing an atmospheric sense of the forests and the flowing of time.
Using bamboo rattan, a material of the Kavalan Tribe of the eastern coast, this work uses the elasticity and tenacity of bamboo pieces and the warmth of the hands to construct a sturdy structure. An experience-centered passage is created on the footbridge, gathering the efforts of groups through workshops to create a space that enables people to experience the passing of time. As visitors glance outward from the bamboo-woven round windows, the Sanku fish traps also seem to glance inward, creating a natural flow between the inner and outer landscape and the overlapping of ancient craftsmanship, memories, and the present.
Flying Luminophor．2016
Wheel-like Tung Blossoms and the House of Gentleness and Strength / Tung Blossom Art Festival．2016
Wheel-like Tung Blossoms
- Material / Bamboo, handmade paper, tung oil
Tung blossoms exist because of Tung trees and Tung oil. As a source of financial income in the past, Tung blossoms no longer have the same economic value as before but have attracted the attention of many with their aesthetic charm, adding appeal to the mountains with their delicate white blossoms, dancing and inspiring the viewer’s appreciation of beauty.
Using wheel-like weaving techniques, this work uses semi-transparent oil-paper and bamboo pieces to create rotating windows that are placed among the trees. Resembling the Tung blossoms in full bloom, each dancing work of woven bamboo creates a separate dancing frame. As the sunlight falls between the trees, the moving light and shadows guide viewers to pay attention to the scene within and to enter the time passage of the land and nature.
House of Gentleness and Strength
- Material / Bamboo, rattan, reinforcement
Created in collaboration with other tribal members, this work presents the image of the Mother Land, portraying the gentleness and strength of Hakka women when facing challenges in life. Using the sturdy and gentle quality of Margaret Rotang Palm and the weaving techniques used by indigenous people when creating fish traps, a sense of fluidity is created amid the shelter, allowing visitors to experience the inner power of the House of Gentleness and Strength.
The Heart of the Land: Stay and Stray．2015
- Material / Local bamboo, Margaret Rotang Palm, driftwood, plants
Using bamboo lighting made with natural materials such as bamboo, rattan, bark cloth, and the warmth of tribal craft making, this work is a manifestation of the humbleness of the land, presenting a hallway for visitors to either stay for a brief moment, interact with one another, or pass through. Compared with the surrounding urban view, artist Shu yen hopes that Neihu Town Hall (activity center, a people’s hall during the Japanese Occupation) can become a space that represents a different mentality for the locals, a space characterized by the humbleness of coexisting with nature, mountains, forests, and the land. In addition, the artist also hopes to promote community culture and encourage interaction through weaving.
Bamboo rattan installation The Heart of the Land: Stay and Stray is made with bamboo, rattan, bark cloth, and other natural materials of the land, as well as the techniques involved in Sanku bamboo rattan lighting made by indigenous artists. After half a month of gathering people who have a common interest in natural architecture and handmade crafts, the work was installed in the square in front of the town hall, depicting a flowing passage made with woven bamboo.
Chasing the Wind and Capturing Shadows．2012
- Material / Bark, dye, and wax from Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong
Amid the bustling urban environment of Hong Kong lies a mountain filled with a vibrant ecosystem of various plants and animals. Inspired by the original interaction between humans and plants and using plants from the garden, I peel and weave the bark to connect the plant fibers through human labor. These materials are made into works that resemble spiderwebs and hung on old tree trunks, allowing sunlight and wind to dance playfully in between. The process of acquiring, weaving, and hooking enables a mysterious dialogue with nature that extends to the relationship between people that finally creates a bond with the environment.
Patterns of the Forest: Colorful Wings．2012
- Material / Paper pulp from Puli Paper, and grass fiber, plant dye from the park
Applying the historical and unique handmade paper techniques from local Puli craft, the artists collaborated with Guangxing Paper Factory in using the paper pulp of paper mulberry as material. By collecting and using plants from the park to make fiber and dye, the members participate in creating works together.
The patterns in nature are traces of life and proof of environmental influence. The texture of tree burl were previously wounds, while cracks and peeling bark are inevitable processes of nature. Therefore, we have decided to let the elves of nature to leave their marks in this forest, leaving their footprints on the natural textures of the tree.
Orange ocean．2005
- Plant dyeing (potato nuts), cotton cloth, sea water, mud, sunlight, environmental behavior and installation
This is a Process. Through physical labors, I try to make connections and transformation with the environment here.
It’s like doing color dyes. Colors will saturate and fix. The natural dye was obtained from the root of a cartain kind of wild mountain yam. Bleached by burning sunlight and washed in ocean water, the dye was gradually transformed into a color & tender orange.
When the wind blows, my clothes（fibre works）will float. They seem to be breathing and ready to sail across the sea.
