Overview｜摘要
Cities are inseparable from the industries that sustain them, which also shape the ways people live. Taiwan’s small and medium-sized businesses and factories are known for their flexibility and adaptability, yet this flexibility often goes hand in hand with overwork. Taking industry as its starting point, the exhibition invites young artists to reflect on their hometowns and their parents’ working lives, using artistic practice to reconsider the relationships between work, family, and personal experience, and to map different ways of living in the contemporary environment.
Curatorial Reflection｜策展思考
This exhibition is the final chapter of my “Taoyuan Trilogy.” In both Once Upon a Time in Taoyuan and Across the Mountain Ridges, I worked closely with artists through field research and a shared process of learning about local histories and knowledge. Through discussion, research, and collaborative exploration, some—or even all—of the works in these exhibitions were newly created in response to the local context. Once Upon a Time in Taoyuan explored the century-long history of Taoyuan’s old city center, while Across the Mountain Ridges examined the relationship between the mountainous areas surrounding Taoyuan and the people who live there. The final exhibition turns to another defining aspect of Taoyuan: industry.
Beginning in 2022, I invited three young artists based in Taoyuan—TSAI Yi-Hsun, CHIU I-Chi, and TANG Ya-Wen—to reflect on the development of this highly industrialized city through their own experiences of growing up here. All three artists were born around the 1980s and witnessed Taoyuan becoming more prosperous through industrial development. But as the city became wealthier, did their relationships with their families and urban surroundings become happier as well?
My interest in this question also comes partly from my own experience of growing up. During a period of rapid economic growth, when opportunities to make money seemed to be everywhere, many people devoted almost all of their energy to work. The boundaries between working hours and personal time were often blurred, and homes frequently doubled as workplaces. This was a common way of life, but it also meant that many children grew up with relatively little time with their parents.
Together with the artists, I discussed and shared memories of childhood: how our parents’ work influenced our values and life experiences, and even shaped perspectives that distinguished us from others. Through this process, the direction of each artist’s work gradually became clearer.
When the exhibition venue was later confirmed, the project expanded to include artists invited by another curator, TSAI Ming-Yueh. For these artists, the “local” context was Tainan rather than Taoyuan. Siblings LIU Chi-Tung and LIU Chi-Fan, as well as LIN Shu-Kai, contributed two bodies of work that similarly explore the relationship between their parents’ work and their own lives. Together, these works formed the exhibition So Happy to Work Here.
Exhibition Essay | 策展論述
The composition and operation of the city are closely intertwined with its industries. These factors shape people's life patterns. In Taiwan, small and medium-sized enterprises, factories, and even individuals are characterized by a high degree of adaptability and flexibility, yet being adaptable sometimes implies overworking. This exhibition is based on reflection on modern industry with young artists looking back on their hometowns, the work of their parent's generation, and industry conditions. If working is considered a necessary way of earning a living and art a way of retrospect and sorting thoughts, what kind of ideas will arise from such perspectives?
This exhibition features artists aged from 25 to 40–the generation born after the Taiwan economic miracle. Unlike their parents, who underwent poverty and overwork, they are the first generation who is able to live a decent life. They grew up in an era of economic abundance and convenient public infrastructure. However, they have also experienced the impacts of economic development on the environment and lifestyle, impacts such as large-scale ecological pollution, the rapid disappearance of urban life patterns, and the reshaping of family and life by work. In the exhibition, artists of this generation reflect on and create with their life experiences. They look back on generational changes and seek to reconstruct and even repair the relationships between individual and time, individual and city, and individual and family.
Yi-Hsun Tsai's Polluted Life metaphorically portrays Taoyuan, the city he grew up in, with subtly breathing food packages, implying Taoyuan is an industrial city that sustains many families yet suffers greatly from pollution. Chiu I-chi revisits the working conditions of her parents, who sold accessories at stalls and performed piercings for customers, weaving her parents' skills and spirits into Hi, Do You Want a Piercing?. In The Melody Lingers in the Past, Tang, Ya-Wen returns to the metal fabrication shop in her childhood home, where the constant noise day and night signified the stable income of her family.
The act of looking back can also open up a new journey ahead. In Unfinished & Carrying the Weight, Shu-Kai LIN loaded the molds from the demolished foundry of his family onto a tricycle, setting out on his path by reenacting his grandfather’s homeless state in the early years. In Until We Meet Again, LIU Chi-tung＆ LIU Chi-fan join for the second time the "family trip" held for their relatives and friends by their tour guide father. They become aware of the meaning of their travel companions’ absence and changes in their relationships.
FreeS Art Space (B1., No. 82, Sec. 3, Xinsheng N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 104035, Taiwan)
2024/06/01- 2024/06/29
Curator｜LAI Pei-Chun、TSAI Ming-Yueh
Artist｜TSAI Yi-Hsun、CHIU I-Chi、TANG Ya-Wen、LIU Chi-Tung & LIU Chi-Fan、LIN Shu-Kai
Opening Reception | June 1, 2024 (Sat.), 15:00
Exhibition Talk | June 15, 2024 (Sat.), 14:00
Speakers | CHUANG Wei-Tzu and participating artists
Artist at Work | CHIU I-Chi
June 1, June 15, June 22, and June 29, 13:00–15:00
—
Organizer | TheCube Project Space
Sponsors | Ministry of Culture, National Culture and Arts Foundation, Spring Foundation of Culture
Visual Design | CHEN Yen-Ju, WEI Wen-Ju
Lighting Design | HO Chung-Chang
Exhibition Installation Support | KAO Teng-Hui
Exhibition Photography | HUNG Hao-Min