Floating Island

wooden seat, three sketches, maps, pottery sculptures, modification of ready-made objects, books, photocopy texts; three-channel videos
site-specific installation
2021

Tai-jiang Inland Sea, formerly known as the “sea of whale bones” in Dutch ancient literature, could probably be given the name for the shoals that looked like whale backs rising from water. Or maybe there had been whales losing their ways here and got stranded on the sandbanks called “kun shen (the body of a giant fish)”? 

However, with the constant overflowing and diversion of rivers, no matter for the sea of whale bones or Daofong Lagoon, both the estuaries and the areas of inland seas are vanishing gradually because of riverbed silt. The phenomenon is called “Floating Island” in geography.

At present, we can only find some traces of these inland seas in Qigu and Beimen Districts as well as in those fish farms densely located along the west coast. The history of salt production in Taiwan is just like legacy of these inland seas through the imagery of salt crystals on the ground surface after the emergence of floating islands. Nowadays, as global warming is happening, we are seemingly able to envision sea level rise that submerges the land area once again from a futuristic perspective. Is it possible that even hái-iang (whale in Sirayan) aspires to return to land where its ancestors used to live? We, who yearn for the sea while being enchanted with the myth of giant fish, stroll along the border of ancient Soulangh (Siao-long in Sirayan) peninsula and contour the landscape of Daofong Lagoon with our body. The project extends from the artist’s exhibition “Continental Sea” in 2019. During her three-month residency, the artist has linked the projects through utilizing spaces, scripts, writing, and images while attempting to comprehend and envisage the interchangeable relationship between “inland sea” and “land at the border of sea and rivers” from the past to the present. The images refer to topology and the myth that are developed by the inland sea, salt, and whales. The gradual disappearance of the inland seas and what it may symbolically mean to Taiwan shall also be explored.

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陸浮

鹽寮木座、素描三張、地圖、陶製雕塑、現成物改造、書籍、影印文本；三頻道錄像循環播放
依場地而定
2021

過去的台江內海在荷蘭人的古文獻中稱之為「鯨骨之海」，不知是因為內海中逐年淤積的沙汕浮出水面有如鯨魚的背脊，或是時常有鯨魚迷航進入內海，而擱淺於被稱作「鯤鯓」的沙洲上？

而不論是鯨骨之海或是倒風內海，都在溪水不斷氾濫改道、河床淤積的情景下，原先寬廣的內陸海洋與出海口一點一點地消逝，地理學上將這一現象稱之為「陸浮」。

現今只剩下七股、北門湖和西海岸密密分佈的魚塭還留著一些蛛絲馬跡，而台灣的製鹽史也彷彿內海陸浮後的遺址，以鹽的形象結晶在地表。在全球暖化的現在，我們彷彿站在近未來來的視角，看著曾經被土地填起的滄海逐步回升，是否連海翁（西拉雅語中的鯨魚）也想要回到它陸地祖先的居所呢？而對於海的嚮往並著迷於 巨魚傳說的我們，遊走在古蕭壠半島的邊緣上，用身體描繪著倒風內海的輪輪廓。駐村計畫起自2019年的展覽《內海》，在為期三個月的駐村時間裡，以空間場域、劇本 書寫和影像等手法延伸此計劃，試著參參透、想像「陸地上的海」與「海河交界的陸地」在今昔之間互為表裡的過程。影像圍繞在由內海、鹽與鯨魚交織而成的地誌、神話為索引對象，以及內海意象的消失之於台灣在精神意義上的顯現。