Textile Knows—Local Fashion Collecting Project

Hong-gah Museum is proud to present the Beitou Local Collecting Project Series for the fifth consecutive year. The project probes with different themes each year, inviting artists of different backgrounds to explore various aspects of Beitou. Local communities, including children, youths, and senior citizens are also invited to participate in the project. The results of the collaborative research and creative practices are then exhibited or performed in the museum. The content not only relates to the local context but also interweaves diversified forms and disciplines. This year, centered on the theme of “fashion”, the project focuses on the usage of all kinds of textiles in our daily life and its reflection of the locality. It explores how textiles are used for preserving personal feelings and memories and how it serves as a thread for approaching local memories. With the participation of local communities, it also seeks to convey the importance of sustainability. Departing from fabric-using experiences here in Beitou, we hope to present artworks with local features that can also be shared universally.

Artists: Daniel DITLEVSON, HUNG Chien-Heng, KUO I-Chen, Stitching Sisters, YING Ke-Jie, YOON Soo-Jung

LIU Ying-Tseng with Wenhua Elementary School

Feature Performance: CHIA Chien-Ju

Curator: Zoe YEH

Facebook event page: https://fb.me/e/1kdEw4C9l

In the research of the special tour, the artist’s body shuttles along Huanggang Creek, through Sulfur Valley, Beitou Market, and the Keelung Riverbank. Pass through the serpentine vegetation of Datunshan, meander through the lanes and byways of Beitou Market, Huanggang Creek has borne witness to the mist-enveloped “Witch’s Brew” of the Ketagalan tribe, the waterways of commerce between the Plains indigenous peoples and Han people after the collection of sulfur. The water of the creek, both seen and unseen, flows beneath parks, marketplaces, temples, and parking lots, interwoven and wrapped around the daily lives of the people of Beitou. Like the face and backing of fabric, it weaves into being the historical changes and spatial layering. Fashion is an attitude; it is a way of life that changes with the times; and it is furthermore a vital symbol of living in the present. The current performance utilizes the corporeal experience of expedition to respond to Beitou in the present moment.