The “Eco Art on Island” themed residency exhibition hosted by the Taiwan American Art Association (TAAC) has opened on Governors Island from now on. The exhibition is expected to last throughout the summer. 40 resident artists will bring their works and will also create new works on site during the residency to present to the audience. The artists are mainly from Taiwan, and there are also creators from all over the world and even born in Antarctica.
The Taiwan American Art Association is one of the 21 resident institutions in the 2025 Governors Island Art Season. Its exhibition space is located in Villa 17, Nolan Park on the island. This is the third consecutive year that TAAC has been invited to reside on the island. The theme of this year is “ecology”, guiding the resident artists to think through their creations, in the context of the climate crisis, how humans should deal with the impact of the environment.
Li Meihua, head of the association, said that as an island region, Taiwan is surrounded by the sea and has few resources. It is more vulnerable than the mainland in the face of natural disasters. Therefore, as people from Taiwan, it is even more necessary to have a deeper thinking about ecology and the future. For example, one of the works in this exhibition was inspired by the creator’s return to his hometown after the 2009 typhoon and the village flattened by landslides.
In response to the climate issue, the organizers also set up a special “Antarctic Dialogue” exhibition area, inviting the world’s first woman born in Antarctica to bring some photographic works. The series of pictures shows the daily life of Antarctic families and also reflects the difficulties faced by those who were born in Antarctica but could not get the recognition and legal status of their actual motherland during the colonization of Antarctica by countries such as Argentina.
In the Arctic section, the Taiwanese artist Lin Jiazhen recorded the video when she participated in a research project in the Arctic. The two artists will participate in a dialogue event in the villa on July 19 (Saturday), which is also part of the “Antarctic Dialogue” exhibition.
In addition to the theme exhibition, the organizers also set up solo exhibition spaces for some artists. The solo exhibitions will be divided into two seasons, from now to July 28 (Monday) and from August 2 (Saturday) to September 8 (Monday), throughout the summer. Exhibitor Zhang Jiawei introduced that he used a group of paintings with rich imagination and multiple elements to present the three stages of “freedom, sacrifice, and rebirth” on the way of immigration.
In the depiction of “freedom”, the Statue of Liberty lies on her side in the swamp in a posture of Buddha’s nirvana, reflecting the beautiful imagination of immigrants about “freedom” when they first arrived in their new home. When it comes to the “sacrifice” stage, an Asian woman stands naked on the altar, her body pierced by countless rose-shaped arrows, while foreign men stand under the altar and stare at the victim with different facial expressions.
Zhang Jiawei introduced that his inspiration comes from the fact that many Asian women have to sacrifice themselves to loveless and judgmental marriages in order to obtain immigrant status. In the “rebirth” stage, he portrayed eight literary and artistic stars who are well-known in European and American culture as the “Eight Immortals” in traditional Chinese culture, to show a state of East-West integration and world harmony after overcoming the hardships of the immigration road.
In addition, the exhibition also opened a memorial exhibition area for the late Taiwanese artist Shi Jinhua, which includes some of his works, books introducing him, and videos of interviews during his lifetime. Shi Jinhua’s works are mostly based on the theme of “measurement”, and the most famous of them include exploring what can be presented with a pencil. Curator Zheng Baoyu introduced that Shi Jinhua was diagnosed with congenital diabetes in his youth, and he was dependent on insulin for life, and there was a risk of worsening of the disease and death at any time. Therefore, his understanding and exploration of life is deeper than his peers.
The village-based results exhibition will be held from September 13 (Saturday) to November 2 (Sunday) this year. At that time, the resident artists will bring the crystallization of their thinking and creation throughout the summer.
