GROUP EXHIBITION

If one day water can express itself through speech like we do, what will it say?

In recent years, artists have continuously touched upon the impacts of climate change that are of great concern to our society. Museums and galleries have also proactively addressed this pressing issue to the public through diverse means. Confronted with this thorny problem, the Live Forever Foundation, with its unwavering commitment to the integration between art and natural ecology, stages its year-end special exhibition titled ‘Water Says.’ The exhibition’s flowing, immersive design beckons, inviting the visitors to personally experience the force of water while navigating through the Vital Space. Intended to explore the symbiotic relationship between humanity and nature, this exhibition investigates the contradictions among causality, nature, and sustainability. In this way, the visitors may have a meaningful dialogue with water via this exhibition.

The immersive spatial design entices the viewers to ‘roam’ the large-scale paper fiber installations.

Invited by the curatorial team ‘Mutualism,’ the artists take part in this exhibition from the angles of ‘climate change’ and ‘water regeneration.’ American printmaker Jami Taback and American paper fiber artist Jane Ingram Allen who has served as the initiator and curator of several major nature art festivals in Taiwan share the creative philosophy that underscores and respects the natural environment. Particularly impressed by the two artists’ use of environment-friendly materials in their works, the curatorial team invites them to present their collaborative installation in Taiwan for the first time. Their collaboration began in 2021 and resulted in the work In Deep Water-We’re in This Together displayed in this exhibition. Comprising a total of 36 large strip-shaped paper fiber components hung from the ceilings, this work was conceived by reference to the artists’ observation of people’s feelings about climate change in California. The two artists create a mesmerizing collage of the multifaceted ocean and wildfire with paper fiber and print. Installed in the entrance hall of the Vital Space, their work dances in tandem with the natural light and produces an immersive state of mind in the viewers as they move around it, which alerts us to the looming problems and crises over the natural environment.

The sound and fiber installations drive the viewer’s unique sensory expansion over ‘water regeneration.’

The Live Forever Foundation has opened up a new chapter for its venue since 2016. It interprets the diversity of exhibition by presenting in-situ or commissioned works of art at the Vital Space. Him-iân Lí and Sheng-Wen Chen are the two Taiwanese artists in the joint exhibition ‘Water Says.’ Lí uses sound and video as the media for synesthesia, whilst Chen’s fiber installation adds multi-layered narratives to the exhibition. They bring newly created works, providing a fantastic feast of visual and auditory delight for the viewers.

In 2019, Lí adopted ‘water’ as the entry point to collect the sounds of different wastewater treatment plants. The Waste and the Darkness and The Related, Us, her new works in the series ‘SISTERS (Chí-moāi)’ for this exhibition, are respectively installed in the entrance foyer and a dark room on the second floor of the venue. Translating the technology of ‘water regeneration’ into the forms of sound, image, and painting, the two works seek to investigate the co-existence and contradictions between natural resources and our regeneration technology.

Chen has long been concerned with environmental issues. He tends to integrate into his fiber creations the human-made garbage he collected from river and mountain cleanup. In his work Artificial Immunity for this exhibition, Chen adds stream water as a heterogeneous material to the dyes, and the rendering of the dyes on the fiber fabric symbolises the discoloured body of water caused by pollution. Installed in the passage on the second floor, this work enchants the viewers with alluring variations in colour and material. Its distinctive media and expressive way draw the viewers’ attention to issues such as urban water resources management.

Nature doesn’t speak like humans do, yet we may observe and feel it.

When it came to the curatorial process, Iris Ping-Chi Hung from the curatorial team ‘Mutualism’ mentioned: ‘Works of art do speak if the viewers personally enter the venue to appreciate and feel them. These works per se are tantamount to the questions and doubts that the artists seek to address. When we discussed with the artists, I always asked them: ‘Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future as you witness growing problems of environmental pollution?’ They tended to reply with a touch of positivity amidst sadness, being hopeful about the future. They believe that every cloud has a silver lining whatever one thinks the process may be. We’ll also notice the recurrence of contradictions and conflicts in this exhibition, since humanity is no more a composite of contradictions than the fate of Sisyphus in Greek mythology. Maybe one day we can really break the spell and end the cycle.’

Yu-Chieh Chen, the artist director of the Live Forever Foundation, has been a tireless advocate for environmental protection. She said: ‘The foundation has long been concerned with the natural environment and ecology, continuing to organise environment-related events such as the previous ‘Love of Earth.’ This time, the exhibition ‘Water Says’ harnesses the aesthetic quality and pathos of artworks to arouse people’s curiosity and interest. Whether in the form of exhibition, lecture, or event, we aim to connect human communities so as to transform and promote the serious issues about the natural environment. Thus, the public may become more aware of their immediate surroundings and hence a lifestyle modification. The side events and lectures of this exhibition are much richer in number and content than those of previous ones. We cordially expect all of you, from children to adults and even practitioners in the fields of art and environment, to participate in these events whichever is of interest to you, and then bring the experience back to your life and apply it to your quotidian practice.’