2021 Feb.-Apr. /
Luzhunan, Miaoli County
Luzhunan Haocaitou Art Festival
The Emergence
Luzhunan in Toufen Township, Miaoli County, is an old community with a history of 300 years. With more than 50 Fujian-style traditional courtyard homes remaining, Luzhunan has been promoting educational and cultural activities to revitalize the community.
As time goes by, parts of the traditional roof tiles buildings were collapsed and could not be used anymore. Although some old unused houses in Luzhunan is gradually falling into ruins, as long as the local community are here, there is always a chance for traditional culture revival.
Taking above into account, the artist tried to repurpose the waste tiles by bringing both tiles and residents together. All the roof tiles of this installation was collected by local community from ruins leftover roof tiles. Tzu Fen then joined these tiles together and transformed them into an emerging buffalo sculpture on site.
Water buffalos play an important role in early traditional Taiwan society especially related to rice production. Buffalos are also animals representing strength, endurance, hard work and perseverance in Taiwanese culture. Moreover, the artist see buffalos as a symbolic image that dedicate themselves to local prosperity just as local community.
Old roof tiles were selected,washed, shaped and drilled carefully. Then the artist Tzu Fen Lin stitched these tiles piece by piece together with industrial fabric strip. The way that tiles supported and relied on each other also represent the strong relationship that Luzhunan community has built together. The water buffalo make out of old roof tiles showed the reviving potential to emerge from ruins at any time, just as the promising situation when local community stand together nowadays.
Material：old roof tiles, industrial fabric, metal wire, diamond wire mesh
Dimension：100x150x25cm
