Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

The public art mural is made of oyster-shells which are local materials and have become an environmental concern. During the process, the project guided the students to recognize and discuss local industrial pollution and, furthermore, to invite more public involvement and discussion. The project demonstrates how profound the arts in its participation in society.

The project also breaks the myth that large-scaled art works are the privilege of the art academia and professionals. By proposing public issues, Ms. Hsu integrates different supports and resources to create a dialogue platform with passion. It is a wakeup call for the current public arts which often lacks critical thinking as well as our somewhat feeble environmental movements.(Committee member/ Ma-li WU)

“The Sea of Hope” is one of the few excellent contemporary art projects linked with public consciousness. Ms. Hsu, raised in the city, notices several serious issues in the remote area such as cross-generation breeding, urban-rural unbalance, and eco-environmental crisis. Learning about public murals at an overseas community workshop, she successfully aligns local activist groups with intellectuals, as well as stimulates discussion regarding the local aquaculture, the highly-polluted heavy industry, and the lack of resources that afflict the area's public schools. 

Ms. Hsu intently avoids the academic tag of artist or curator. Regarding herself as an activist, she initiatively jumps into the overlapped sphere between the global and the local, exploring the voice from the bottom of society through arts activities. Such practice is very unique among numerous young artists, what is defined the “new generation”, young people who exhibit extreme individualism. The well-executed project creates a public forum with a global vision. It shows how contemporary art can step out of the confines of the museum.(Committee member/ Po-shin CHIANG)

Artwork Introduction

Hsu Hsiu-yun's “The Sea of Hope：Oyster and Seashell Mural with Community Participants” was completed July 2007 in YunLin  County,  Taisi  Township. Over a six month period, Hsu organized artists, students, residents whose livelihood is the sea, and environmental groups. Part public art project, the mural is a social activist work to speak out against impoverishment and of the Taisi community.

Initially it was difficult to obtain local support for such a project. Through community building and fostering new relationships, Hsu was able to gain the local people’s trust and support. The Yunlin residents soon realized that their participation in the mural had important social significance. The mural symbolically shows a factory chimney spewing toxic smoke that threatens the fishermen’s lives.                              

Taisi Junior High School participated. Their regular academic programming does not contain fine art nor does it maintain fine art teachers on the staff. This shows the need for art awareness and art training in the remote areas of Taiwan. Students learned and conducted field study, documentary broadcasting, pictorial composition, seashell gathering and mural inlaying,

Hsu acted as curator and executive organizer. Artist Tsai Ying-jie collaborated on the project as he is an expert in creating oyster shell murals. In addition, Yu Kuo-hsin was the community coordinator. Other participants included The Yunlin Association of Shallow Water Mariculture, The Group of Taisi Coast Culture, and Chiayi University art students.

To create the mural, thousands of various spiral and oyster shells were collected along with glass and other industrial materials. The mural symbolically tells the story that industrialization of the area will destroy the environment, the local fishing industry plus the traditional way of life for the community residents. For the women who farm oysters for a living, this mural became a great source of pride. Ultimately the residents of Taisi proudly consider the mural a cultural treasure.

About the Artist 

Hsu Hsiu-yun received her MS from the National Yunlin University of Science & Technology in the Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation. Upon graduation she embarked on the preservation and study of Hakka culture.

Her interests include cultural heritage, community arts and public murals. She studied community-based mural making in San Francisco and brought her knowledge to connect with the public and to work with the coastline areas of Yunlin. She participated in the Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center workshop in San Francisco in 2006. She visited the Curitiba Cultural Foundation in Brazil in 2007.