Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh - The Islands

The Islands 島嶼舊式

A 16mm film installation consists of one 16mm film and five video sculptures

"Taiwan is not a boat, she is a land rooting into this world."
- Nan-Jung Cheng, Taiwanese publisher and pro-democracy activist

The Islands is a 16mm film installation, inspired by my travel experiences in three islands: Tsushima, Japan; Staten Island, America and Inishmore, Ireland. I am addicted to the idea of escape. I’ve been to many places, but never feel that I belong in any of them, even my country Taiwan. Taiwan is an island, which has changed hands many times in its 500 year history. The Islands suggests the effects of post-colonization and the conflict between personal memory and the inherited memory of history.

Video Sculptures

Taking the audience on a journey, the five Taiwanese elementary school desk sets are transformed into different video sculptures. Each sculpture consists specific animation made by historic Taiwanese archive photographs and sound collage, representing different colonial period of Taiwan.

Republic of China Rule/ Japanese Rule

Kingdom of Tungning 1661–1683

Dutch Formosa 1624–1662

Spanish Formosa (detail)

Republic of China Rule (detail)

Qing Rule (detail)

Spanish Formosa 1626–1642

Republic of China 1895–present

Qing Rule 1683-1895

16mm film

The film was projected on the transparent plastic in the center of the room, hanging above the Republic of China video sculpture. It is like a boat, floating in the air. It represents my emotional attachment to the islands I have visited.

In the 10 mins film, I re-filmed the photographs I took in those islands. By constructing, re-filming and hand animating the photographs and objects, island is no more an geographical term, but a state of mind, in which the film as a process and medium to express nostalgia and reexamine my relationship among land, nation and identity.

The film- The Islands has been screened individually in film festivals and galleries worldwide.

Award
Best Film, SEFF Binghamton

Screening
ARCHIVI, Cesena, Italy
International Film Festival: ZOOM - ZBLIŻENIA, Jelenia Góra Poland
ARCHIVI, Via Montalti, Italy
Analogica Selection 7, Artist Television Access, San Francisco
ANALOGICA FESTIVAL, Bolzano Meran, Italy
Video on the Road, Polymer Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
DOBRA - Festival Int'l de Cinema Experimental, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Syros Int'l Film Festival, Syros, Greece
Eye Candy, Kunsthal ved siden af, Svendborg, Denmark
BAINS ARGENTIQUES / Filmlabs meeting, Nantes, France
Kaohsiung Film Festival, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
SEFF Binghamton, Best Film, Binghamton U.S.A.