Solo exhibition at the Port Moody Arts Centre in Metro Vancouver, February 24 to March 31, 2022.

This series of work is from my last two years of research in utilizing native plants of British Columbia for printmaking and papermaking.  The inks and papers are made using extracted dyess and fibers from these native plants.  This exhibition reflects a cultural bridge between my Canadian identity and my native Taiwanese ethnicity.  I am returning to my roots to advocate for the importance of environmental conservation in this contemporary time. 

The exhibition has three components:  The first component is a series of calligraphy prints depicting one single native plant of Canada; the calligraphic image is my interpretation of the plant’s name from oracle Traditional Chinese script writing.  The calligraphy is silkcreen printed using ink made with the plant’s extracted pigment mixed with sumi ink on abacá paper.  Abacá is an indigenous banana palm fiber native to the southeast pacific island including Taiwan.

The second component is a series of “paper money” 金紙, spirit money traditionally burned at temples to memorialise ancestors or passed loved one.  The practice is widely performed in Taiwan, Japan, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, diasporas of Asian communities.  The paper is traditionally made of bamboo or rice reed, a stamped seal, and attached with a foil square.  My paper is made from western hemlock and cedar fibre with cotton pulp, then silkscreen printed with images reflecting the region where the plant’s pigment was collected.  On some of the paper money I chine-collé yellow dyed mulberry paper as the foil representation, in place of printing a yellow block with goldenrod ink.  This concept was cultivated from a 2021 artist residency I completed in Nelson with Damian John, a fellow Tl’azt’en First Nation artist, who I had the honour of collaborating with in exploring traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and practicing ecologically sustainable art.

The last component is a continuation of my collaborative experiment with a lantern artisanal intergenerational family in Taiwan.  Traditionally the paper lantern is hand painted and constructed with Mulberry paper.  These lanterns are still in use for festivals and temple processions throughout Daoist and Buddhist temples in Taiwan.  Due to the pandemic, I am presently unable to work directly with the family.  The pieces you see here are the beginning of a collaboration that I hope to complete in person for an exhibition in Taipei of 2023.