This work of art portrays the process of the artist's search for sunken ships. Green Island Township Chronicle tells the history of a Dutch merchant ship that had run aground and sunk near the shores of Green island in the late 1800s, approximately 1880, fully loaded with provisions. The ship's load would have sustained the islanders for three entire years, but as all of the arable land on the island were laid to waste three years thereafter, residents of the island endured a considerable period of destitution and distress. In 2013, the underwater archaeology team of Academia Sinica initiated an exploratory survey based on these records, and discovered a sunken ship that has since been named 'Green Island No. 1.' This video begins with views of the Green Island White Terror Memorial Park of today (previously a penitentiary for political prisoners) before diving from the sky into the sea and arriving at the excavation site of the sunken 'Green Island No. 1.'
At the same time, the artist has also constructed a replica of the sunken ship using 3D modelling and printing technology based on the hull dimensions specified in the survey reports and historical documents, and display the model within the customised showcase. The irregular facets of the digital model protrude from out of the display cases, representing a digitalised imaginative process of delineating unlived moments in history using contemporary technology.
Press release courtesy Liang Gallery.
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