Aluaiy Kaumakan, born 1971 in Pingtung County, Taiwan, is an interdisciplinary textile sculptor and installation artist. She belongs to a leading noble family of the Paiwan Nation from the Paridrayan Community of Pingtung County in southern Taiwan. She creates sculptures with wool, cotton, copper, silk, and glass beads, weaving organic or vegetal forms. Aluaiy Kaumakan uses 'Lemikalik', a Paiwan artistic technique that consists of weaving in concentric circles – intertwining life memories of tribal nobility to form a place for an Indigenous Taiwanese uprising and its legacy in art, ecology and cultural politics. Her practice is inspired by her Paiwan culture and tradition and by her role as an Indigenous woman responding to current issues. In 2009, her village was hit by the particularly violent Typhoon Morakot, forcing the inhabitants to relocate to the Rinari community. Looking for ways to connect members of her displaced community through a creative process, which reactivates and transforms a set of traditions, her work in customary culture becomes a statement about developing ways to dwell in a disturbed environment.
Read MoreWith the "Lemikalik" weaving technique of the Paiwan people as the main axis in her artworks, she won the first prize of the 4th Pulima Art Award in 2018. Her art pieces were selected for Japan's Yokohama Triennale and the Taipei Biennial in 2020. Inspired by the tribal culture in her hometown, Aluaiy Kaumakan creates a large-scale art installation in response to the issues such as water resources and the environment to echo the theme of 2022 Sydney Biennale.
Text courtesy Liang Gallery.
