In Torrents, We Settle as a Tree

Commissioned specifically for this exhibition, this site-specific work responds to the existing floor-to-ceiling grid-patterned frosted-glass windows in the museum. Incorporating painterly and ink-and-wash elements, flowing and bleeding effects, paper cutting, and paper-weaving techniques, the work evokes an indigenous landscape of humans and the land, local memories, and an orientation toward the future. It draws upon the artist’s childhood memories of living along the Yanshui River in Tainan: traditional houses, guava trees, the shimmering surfaces of fish ponds, and the fragrance of ripe fruit interweave to form a vibrant landscape of place. As Wu describes it: “We stand fast in the flood, not because we are firmly rooted, but because we have not yet been swept away. The shape of a tree is a form of temporary resistance.”