Inspired by the painting ‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ (1928) by Hsueh-Hu Kuo (1908-2012) of the TFAM collection, the winning team of X-site will organize the public program of five events entitled Sublime Project during the exhibition period of Analogue Forest. The team attempts to conduct an on-site study–returning to the original sites such as the Jiantanshan Hiking Trail and Taiwan Grand Shrine (now the Grand Hotel), and analogously identifies or establishes, by visual expression, sound creation, and corporal sensation, the ‘orderliness’ in the natural landscape illustrated in the painting. ‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ pivots on the public program which encourages a ‘group study in the field’ as the first step of enlightenment. Three invited artists of different disciplines will launch a field study to observe from various perspectives of art and to elaborate on the following events: natural nutrients cultivated from a ‘group study in the field’ in ‘Learn from forest’; opening performance as indicated in ‘Prologue’; workshops of symbolized vision in ‘Sketch form forest’; sound performance as visualized sound in ‘Listen from forest’, and talks on the subject of forest empathy in ‘Talk from forest’. The different types of events echo the concept of analogy to a forest in Analogue Forest and deduce the somatosensory memory and spatial experience during a promenade in the woods.

Talk from forest – I am a moving tree

“I will walk into a forest to let myself melt into it, my body and senses flow among the trees and sway with the wind, and then become them momentarily."

In recent years, the visual artist Ju-An Hsieh has eagerly visited different natural habitats through overseas travel and residence programs. She’s lived with plants and transformed what she saw and felt into works. In this talk, she will read aloud her notes of creation and share her stories of roaming in the forest and creation during the residence programs in the Netherlands, Estonia, Iceland, Taiwan, Japan, and other places.

The form of the talk is inspired by the allusions in Aranyaka (Book of the Forest) from the Vedic era in India, which describes the elderly hermits living in the forest, replacing traditional sacrifices as a ritual with meditation–a thought combining ideas from religion, philosophy, and mysticism. In the event, the artist will write long prose about her creation experiences in diverse residence programs and turn it into “a handmade book presented through reading”. Meanwhile, the images and manuscripts of creation during her journeys will be displayed on the screen. 

In the last five minutes of the talk, the artist will also share with visitors a sound work based on the concept of “sacred trees” that she created during ART ITOYA (residence program) in Japan.

Session 1: 06.08 (Sat) 18:00-18:50 (50 minutes/session)

Session 2: 07.06 (Sat) 18:00-18:50 (50 minutes/session)

Venue: Analogue Forest and its nearby, TFAM outdoor plaza

Admission:

• free for the general public; no reservation required
• Full participation, including sitting on the ground for a long time with limited seats, is suggested for each participant to maintain the quality of the event. Please evaluate if your physical health is suitable for the event before registering.

About artist

Ju-An Hsieh

Now lives in Taiwan. Graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands, she creates with photography, video, and sound design. The recent works focus on the interrelationship between beings and the environment, combining diverse aspects, such as plant ecology, indigenous traditional knowledge, and mysticism, to explore a non-dualistic and highly fluid world. In 2021, the first solo exhibition ‘Tree Hole’ in Amsterdam was an immersive video to record the sounds of the street trees and urban environment around Amsterdam, from which the artist further elaborated on the sensory capabilities of plants and the theory of the Wood Wide Web. Currently, she often conducts artistic research and practice through residence programs overseas and hopes to continue to convey the uniqueness of plants through her works.