The Golden Thread Gallery is delighted to host a ‘visiting curator’s talk by Shang-Lin Wun, an independent curator based in Taipei. Shang-Lin will be introduced by Belfast based artist Shiro Masuyama. Shiro is a co-curator the Golden Thread Gallery’s current exhibition ‘A Noise of Silence: Japanese Art Now’. Shang-Lin Wu’s Talk will focus upon his current research into the subject of migration.
The talk is free to and all are welcome attend.
Migration gives rise to human history. Why do humans choose to migrate? What is the driving force behind it? Perhaps it is to escape natural disasters, climate change, persecution of wars, or for a better life that urges people to leave their homelands in pursuit of a more suitable living environment. People move and migrate in order to create new opportunities for personal survivals which might eventually end up in failure.
Taiwan is situated in the center of East Asia islands, neighboring Korea and Japan in the north and the Philippines, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries in the south. On this island surrounded by seas, there are unique and complex humanistic and natural landscapes. Currently knowns as the first aborigines to settle here, the Austronesian peoples have been living in harmony with nature via all kinds of survival techniques, e.g. hunting, fishing, planting, and weaving, while also applying navigation techniques to contact other islands. Next, Hoklo and Hakka peoples from the southeast coasts of China started to migrate to Taiwan in succession, followed by Chinese immigrants that came with the Nationalist government between 1945 and 1949. In recent years, there have been foreign spouses and migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries. Collectively, these peoples make up the rich and diverse cultural landscapes as they are today.
Shang-Lin Wu
Shang-Lin Wu was born in Taipei, Taiwan, 1977, He is an independent curator, visual artist and freelance editor, currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. After graduated from National Taiwan University of Arts(BFA) (2000), National School of Fine Art(DNSEP), Dijon, France (2007). Wu has traveled and worked as an artist-in-residence in Korea (MMCA -National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) and (Gyeonggi Creative Center), Taiwan (Taipei Artist Villages) and Japan (Arcus Project), Thailand (Silpalkorn University). The main message he would like to deliver through his work accomplished during this period, is to discuss various problems caused by the constant expansion of modern cities. By exchanging personal prospective with his interlocutors, he presents different aspects of the method each individual chooses to deal with the current situation.
Recent exhibitions he has curated are “Wandering Seeds : Moving and Migration – Stories from a place to other”, National Museum of Prehistory, Taitung, Taiwan ; Taipei Botanical Garden, Taiwan ; Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan ; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea (2018-2019) .” Rivers – The way of living in Transition / Asia Contemporary art link” Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan & Gwangju Biennale Gallery 1, Korea (2015-2016), “Twilight – The Prospects of Asian Industry” Tainan, Taiwan (2013)
