Taiwan
In 2017 I received a Fulbright research grant to explore the idea of cultural cartography in Taiwan, my ancestral homeland. My work there looked at how materials and patterns in the urban landscape reflected the island’s layered history.
The Material and Pattern of Place
A short video from Fulbright Taiwan about the project > > >
Read more about my thinking and approach to studio practice here.
Lane 44 Nanmen Road, 2018, handwoven ramie, inkjet print, 24 x 21 x 1.75 inches
Lane 44 Nanmen Road, detail
Tainan Tile (unweaving), 2020, digital print on cotton gauze, maple frame, 12.75 x 17.75 x 3.25 inches
Untitled (cheese containers), 2018, cast concrete, plastic bag, 6 x 5.5 x 1 inches each
All the Stars, 2021, cast concrete, plastic produce netting, 8 x 3.5 x 1.25 inches
57 Shennong Street, 2018, aluminized print, brick, tile, 13 x 10 x 1.5 inches
Brick Echo, 2021, archival inkjet print, found construction remnant, plywood, pine, 14.5 x 42 x 6 inches
Brick Echo, detail
From Guantian to Taipei, 2021, inkjet print, cast concrete, foam, handwoven cotton, plywood, pine, 23 x 21.5 x 8.25 inches
Object Calendar: Tainan, Taiwan
2020, inkjet prints in maple frames, edition of 3 , 13.5” x 18” each
This series began while I was living in Taiwan exploring ideas about how we assign meanings to objects and places, and how personal microhistories mesh with collective knowledge. As I walked around, I collected stones, plant materials, receipts, and the like – small tokens of my experiences, not unlike the plastic souvenirs people buy to remember special trips. I arranged my gatherings and photographed them, ultimately disposing of the actual items. These images record a personal experience of place and time, with memories assigned to objects that otherwise have no relevance, and meaning created in the visual language of their arrangements.
Platform Project/Walks: ecologies of the local
Speedwell Projects, Portland, Maine
August 20 - October 10, 2020
Installation images
The Map is Not the Territory
Solo exhibibtion
June 9 - 22, 2018
Chin Chin Gallery
Tainan, Taiwan
unfired clay, chalk, cast concrete, found brick and construction remnants
8’w x 21’d x 8.5’h
2018
Sitting somewhere between interior design and urban ruin, this one-room installation draws from elements and patterns found around a cement-walled gallery. The unfired clay plays off the historic window grill from Japanese-era Taiwan and the brick, concrete, and tile echo the unique visual language of Taiwan.
Fingerprints of Place: Taiwan
Solo Exhibition
September 24, 2021 - January 30, 2022
The Rockwell Museum
Corning, New York
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A fingerprint is a unique human identifier. When we touch something, we leave behind a trace of our presence – proof that we engaged with our surroundings.
In Fingerprints of Place – Taiwan, Elaine Ng explores the evidence of human engagement, considering how materials, patterns and landscapes reflect the identity of a place and its people. This exhibition evolved from research Ng did while in Taiwan as a Fulbright Grant recipient in 2017-2018. See a blend of works including photographs, construction remnants, found objects and new creations that function as three-dimensional “fingerprints” of Taiwan as seen from Ng’s perspective.
Taiwan’s urban landscapes are composed of numerous layers of material culture stacked one upon the other. The island’s tropical environment accelerates deterioration, exposing the underlying layers of the past in an archaeological record of cultural history. While materials such as brick, concrete, wood and tile are universal, the way they are crafted and combined becomes a unique marker of place. By altering their original context, Ng creates a personal interpretation that is rooted in place but transcendent of a singular linguistic or cultural understanding.
“Taiwan is my mother’s homeland, and my relationship with it is an evolving one. As a child, it was a parallel universe where there existed Asian equivalents of my Western upbringing, and as a teenager it felt like an amusement park we visited as tourists. In adulthood, the island has become a place where I can comfortably blend in as part of the majority culture, something impossible for me in the U.S. And yet, I am keenly aware that I do not belong there either. I am a ‘quasi-foreigner’ in Taiwan: I look like a local, but I am not; I speak Chinese, but have an accent that reveals my nationality. People are often unsure of how to interact with me, and I with them.
“At the root of these investigations are questions about origin and belonging – what, or who, belongs where, and who decides? Materials and objects carry stories that reveal our relationships to place through both personal experiences and collective knowledge – they reflect the complex and dynamic nature of how humans shape and are shaped by place.” - Elaine K. Ng
