Planning An Exotic Journey

​我計畫一趟旅行，那裡有著異國情調

 

Acrylic on canvas、Digital Giclee Output、Photograph

Installation

2013

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In the "Planning an Exotic Journey" Exhibition, I take on the role of a foreign traveler who collects information, goes site seeing, and listens to stories. These aspects create imagination and understanding of the site, as the "travel sites" I encountered is Taiwan or so called Kaohsiung, this the place I live in for years. Such inspiration came from my experience of backpack travel in Europe last year. Prior to my travel, from the process of planning and gathering information I found numerous stories of online users' travel. These prior knowledge created interesting experiences toward the differences and surprises I encountered in my travel; as I carried the mood for exotic discovery and imagination with me.

 

The most intriguing thing was the history of German's killing of Jews and their Europe invasion in World War II, such contexts have been well depicted in movies or history books that arouse my curiosity toward such events. But in my travel I am surrounded by pleasant weather, vast forest, old buildings, where everything appeared very lovely. But what shocked me the most was the Topographie Des Terrors (it was originally the headquarter of Gestapo) which the site gives detail documentation and display reflecting German's on take of their own history.

 

After returning to Taiwan from my travel, I came to realize that I can also take on the same perspective toward my surround, excited by the idea of why not perceiving the place I live in through the view of a traveler. This was something that I haven't thought of, as I had been taking everything around me for granted.

 

This made me remember the time when I watch TV in the living room, my grandmother chat with me about things in the past, such as the stories of Japanese colonial era, old home or hiding from air raids. Those stories were once things I listen but care very little about because they were difficult for me to imagine such events. Although those stories were very cool but they were once things I listen to but bear very little in mind. Hence, I began to ask my grandmother about the memories of her old home at Toshien, where locals of site were once moved elsewhere to enable this site to be used by Japanese during World War II as a zone for Pacific warfare, as the place now becomes today's Zuoying Navy Harbor. This place is just next to the community I live in. As we talked further, my grandmother told me she forgot the way to her old home, while all she could remember was a longan tree near her home. I sudden realized that there is a longan tree planted in our garden! I asked her if this is the reason the tree is planted? She said yes. I had no idea of the such context until, as it I am fascinated by it, which I began to search for relevant historical information as a starting point to extend out exploring other events.

 

The aerial photograph of bombarded Chaushan, the star like bomb marks resemble the holes of golf court making the scenery carries the trace of the colonial and politics context. During the process of my research, I recalled a golf court outside of the Toshien military base perimeter, where I practiced golf swing in my junior high PE class. As result, these documents, historical contexts, sites, personal memories, intuitive imaginations, and family contexts all come to link to one another through my research.

 

The photographic document and painting are marks created by actions, and transformed into visible trace of the events. As I interchange between the role of foreigner and local (myself) come the exchange of perspective and context of this heterogeneous country.

 

 

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