These weaving works surrounded on the theme, "Taiwan", which is the country where I am from and terribly miss. The weaving works show different demonstrations of techniques, including the basic knowledge of threading, treadling, tapestry, and piling.
(Weaving Pieces will be desplayed first with the reference/ inspiration photo then with the actual weaving and multiple close-ups)
(Weaving Pieces will be desplayed first with the reference/ inspiration photo then with the actual weaving and multiple close-ups)
Food can be said to be one of the top three things that I miss the most about home. Therefore for one of my tapestry weaving I chose to weave my impression of fruit, which is one of the things that Taiwan is most famous for with an abstract take on shaved-ice, a special kind of desert made of shaved-ice served with different kinds of toppings.
I did not want to approach this subject matter too literally therefore I wanted to zoom into the fruit and especially watermellon and the sweet taste that it reminds me of.
Another thing that pops up whenever I think of home is the busy and crowded streets that are always bustling with noise and excitement.
In this piece I left different colors of threads hanging in order to create a busy and crowded feeling, but at the same time I wanted to keep some structural shapes to symbolize the buildings and architectural elements of the city.
This is the inspirational photo for the piece below
This is another approach of the city landscape. Instead of viewing the streets from the perspective of a pedestrian, I wanted to move the perspective to looking down from the windows of the towering buildings in the city.
This is a place in Taiwan where history and culture is interpreted in an innovative way. I wanted to use this as an inspiration becuase this interpretation really sums up the majority of how Taiwan views traditional culture, which instead of ignoring the traditions and letting them be forgotten, we interpret traditions in a way that also preserved the historical and cultural aspect.
This piece, using both the technique of piling and tapestry, is woven in a way that emphasizes the playful atmosphere of the place. I used simpler shapes and bolder colors that resemble the playfulness and the technique of piling in order to bring this playfulness to not only just a viewing experience but also an experience including the sense of touch.
Taiwan is not only known for its busy streets but also the variety of natural environments. This is a photo of one of the national parks,
Taroko National Park. Holding the lives of millions of species, and extraordinary beauty of the nature, it was voted as one of the must visit places in the world.
Instead of focusing on the texture and the shape of the place, I wanted to focus only on the colors of the place. Personally, i think the colors of nature is the most intriguing aspect of nature for that it could be so general as to the whole environment but so specific while closely observing it.
This is another picture taken at Taroko Nationa Park. The combination of mountains and cloud is simply just amazing and that is definitely something that inspires me.
Cotton balls dipped in dyes are used in this weaving.
As mentioned previously about the emvironmental habitats, Taiwan is the home to tons of special species. This picture of fish are just one within all the other special species.
This piece is woven in the consideration of a repeated pattern. Various colors are used to closely portray the colors and details of nature.
What is as equally special about the natural environment is the loving characteristic that Taiwanese people have. This picture taken during a marathon event.
This weaving portrays the relationships between the colors of the participants in the marathon instead of the whole picture. It also emphasizes on more of the internal happiness of being able to be a part of a public event and at the same time, embrace nature.
I am also drawn to the interaction of colors between the participants in this event and nature.
In this piece, I brought in more colors of the nature to portray the intertwining relationship between human and nature.
With another photo of a marathon event that combines both human and nature, I wanted to make a weaving sample that focuses on movement and repetition.
This weaving sample is an exploration that emphasizes on different treadling that results in different color shades and directions thus creating movement to the piece.
This sample is a combination of movement, repetition and colors of both the nature and human
Circling back to the culture aspect of the country, one of the most important times of the year is the time around February. This is the time of Chinese New Year on the Lunar Calendar. This is a time where families gather and everything is wished for the best. Dragon and Lion Dance is one of the rituals that is performed during this time of a year and I think this would be a perfect representation for the festive celebration.
To fully portray the lion, I decided to use piling technique to create the fury characteristic of the lion and also use large amounts of red and a sparkle of gold to add to the festive atmosphere of chinese new year.
Last but not least is one of the most important part of Taiwan's culture, which are the 16 different tribes of aboriginals whom all have their own traditions, languages and cultures. In this particular photo is the tribe, Amis. Every tribe has their particular color and traditional clothing as well as particular woven patterns.
The colors used in this piece are the colors of this specific tribe and the fringe like elements are also taken from the fringes that are hanging from their traditional clothing. I kept the fringes in this sample loose so that when held in hand it can still create the movement that it has on the clothing of the aboriginals while they are dancing.
