Starting from the Island: Contemporary Art from Taiwan
Starting from the Island: Contemporary Art from Taiwan
August 2 – September 29, 2019
Curated by Yan-Huei Chen, Art Bank Taiwan
Featuring Yun-Ting Hun, Kuen-Lin Tsai, Tai-Chun Chou, and Don Don Houmwm
“Starting from an island, we move; as we do, we live and understand the world.”
The island is the hometown where we were born, the place where we live, and the starting point of our mobility. The qualities of an island evolve with time: it is no longer an area bordered by the ocean, since its people now have the ability to reach out frequently and rapidly, by way of modern transportation and online networks, to new territories—whether physical or virtual—gathering a large, ever-changing wealth of environmental experiences and information. In the modern world, life experiences are no longer tied to a single place, but rather unfold at an intersection of diverse places, peoples, and technologies. Against this context, Yun-Ting Hun, Kuen-Lin Tsai, Tai-Chun Chou, and Don Don Houmwm have discovered new ways of probing their environment—and comparing/contrasting its social phenomena—all starting from the island. They make artworks as statements of how much they value where they are, and as responses to where they are.
Starting from the Island offers an illuminating encounter with four Taiwan artists who have learned to connect their multi-local life experiences and environmental observations within a fast-changing contemporary environment of information overload. As they compare and contrast local with global, insularity with overseas, and cities with mountains—and as their discussions stretch from where they live to the ubiquitous modern phenomena that touch all societies throughout the world—they frame a remarkable conversation with their external environment and with all viewers who are open to extraordinary works of art.
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Yun-Ting Hung lives and works in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She received her MFA in 2016 from the National Taiwan University of Arts, then continued her studies at the Meisterstudium at Kunsthochschule für Bildenden Künste in Dresden. Among her extensive international exhibitions, the most notable include f(r)iction in between at Spinnerei Werkschauhalle, Leipzig; Digital OSMOSIS PL 2017 at R+ Gallery and 13 Muz Gallery in Szczcine, Poland; Do/ Through/ Measure at Crane Gallery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Fast and Furious at Halle am Wasser, Berlin, Germany; and International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Ostrale 09, Dresden. In 2009, she received the Public Award, Ostrale 09, and was also awarded the Freeman Foundation Asian Artist’s Fellowship. Since 2011, Hung has served as an artistic director and curator at tamtamART Art Association in Berlin. She currently works as an assistant professor at the Department of Fine Arts at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan, Taiwan; as the main convener of OSMOSIS Audiovisual Media Festival in Taipei; and as artistic director of tamtamART TAIWAN Art Association in Kaohsiung.
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Born in Tainan in 1979, Kuen-Lin Tsai graduated from the MFA Program in New Media Art at the Department of New Media Art of the Taipei National University of the Arts. He earned his BFA at the Department of Fine Arts of the National Taiwan University of the Arts, after attending Fu-Hsin Trade and Arts School. He currently works in Taipei. Solo exhibitions include The Invisible Sound at Liang Gallery in Taipei in 2016; Treesure House at Waterloo Arts in Cleveland in 2015; As We Hear/Say, organized by the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture in 2015; Transformation of Experience at 789 Chicken Farm in Taoyuan in 2013; and Sound Home at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in 2011. The artist has also participated in various group shows at Soka Art Center, Very Fun Park, VT Art salon, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, National Art Museum of China, Mori Art Museum, and Artist Rashid Chowdhuri Art Gallery.
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Don Don Houmwm comes from the Mugumuyu community, and his artwork is multi-media in that it includes performance, acting, and recording installations. He also has expertise in the instruments and composition of indigenous music. His work explores such themes as survival in a changing environment, hard and tender genes, and the skillful demonstration of indigenous people’s aptitude for music and performance. By crossing genders, and mixing multiple generations’ perspectives, he tells contemporary stories of change within the cultures of indigenous peoples. Don Don Houmwm received Pulima Arts Awards in 2016, 2014, and 2012, and has participated in exhibitions in Taiwan and Japan.
Truku Singer-Songwriter | Dondon Houmwm
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Born in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 1986, Tai-Chun Chou received his MFA with a specialization in painting, from the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2012. His works have been honored by the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts’ Kaohsiung Awards and by the Made in Taiwan program at the 2012 Art Taipei. In 2010, he held the solo exhibition Rear Area at VT Artsalon.
