|
Paranh(巴蘭), the old name of now Wushe(霧社), got its name due to the widespread Ku Ling trees (苦苓樹) in this area. The native aboriginal people, Seeddiq, who lived in this place called Ko Ling tree “Paranh” and thus they also give the place the same name with the tree. The features of smooth grain, easy to cut and process to became different material for building had made Kuo Ling tree to be used by Seediq (賽德克) people to produce loom and components of architecture. The symbol of Kuo Ling tree also represents spirits of humdrum but full of tough and tensile. Therefore, Paranh, one the one hand, is the name of Wushe in my creative work, and on the other hand, Paranh also implies the ordinary but strong spirit of my family.
For quit a long time, no matter what kinds of transportation vehicles people use, terminal station is always the place for separation and reunion, as well as the place of a starting point to lead countless unknown people to trace their future dreams. No matter the results are joyful or sorrow; smooth or bumpy. Station is the departing place of leaving and dreaming. In my work ‘Yi-Zgan’, the name of small inn in mandarin indicates the fact that my family member had worked at the ticket outlet of Wushe station, as well as an implication of the process of my family’s life history of staying, flowing and the coming-going past.
My creative work started with my trying to arrange the family photos taken by my father. I found that the growing environment of my family members had a closed relationships with Wushe, located at Ren-Ai Village (仁愛鄉) of Nantou County (南投縣). Their works and emotions were also bridged and linked by Provincial Highway 14(台14線), the highway that connects my hometown and outside world, as well as the road that connects the blood tie of my family.
My creative work does not only represent my family history, but also a work of utilizing the old images to mix with the present geographic situation of these old images. I bring the viewers to go back to the spot of the old photos in order to compare with the life experience of the past generation of my family. Via this representation of my family historical photos, I extend my work to compare the environment and landmark of the geographic spots afterward. By combining these two works, I wrote the historical evolution of the generation by visual images.
Performance and exhibition of this creative work adopt modern electronic photobook and installation art to perform/narrate stories of my family via classical black-and-white photos. The goal is to let the aesthetic narrative of old photos to help viewers and the later generation to understand the history and environment as well as located the geographic landscape. This combination of traditional black-and-white photos and modern spatial equipment and technologies also represents a trip of tracing back the family spirit and homeland via my creative work.
The story of my creative work of the film begins with my grand uncle’s fight back to the army at the Ukrainian Bridge(烏牛欄橋). Than the narrative of the story turns to the life of the past generation alongside the Provincial Highway 14(台14線), and the Provincial highway 14 Gel (台14甲線) of my grandfather, uncle and my parents’ career as the main story line. By adopting dashboard camera as my recording angle, the viewpoint of the film starts from Puli Town (埔里鎮), passing Wushe (霧社), to the final destination, the highest peak of highway of Taiwan - Wuling (武嶺). The background music is a same melody but different language lyrics, which aims to imply the atmosphere of time shifting and unification of the ethnic groups to allow viewers to position themselves in a real situation and aura of taking bus on their ways on the provincial highway 14 and 14 Gel.
Keywords: Wushe、Paranh、Ku Ling tree、Provincial Highway 14、Provincial Highway 14 Gel、Image Genealogy、Ukrainian Bridge
|