Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

Rahic. Talifo’s artwork started from collecting sandals on different beaches to explore the plight of people native to the Austronesian Islands. As a Taiwanese artist of aboriginal descent, Talifo, Rahic wishes to use his artwork to comment on contemporary environmental issues from a different perspective, and so transcends the traditional symbolism of his ancestors. He has been making contemporary art related to the Austronesian Island peoples for many years, and as a showcase for a new phase in his work, this exhibition created much excitement and anticipation. Committee member: Lee, Jiun-Shyan

Artwork Introduction

Rahic.Talif’s “Fali-yos Action Project for Typhoon – The Invasion after Disappearance” took place from January 15 to March 28, 2010 at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts.

Rahic grew up near the big harbor at Fongbin Township in Hualien County, located by the Siouguluan River, a place where typhoons often land. Growing up in the Amis community, he learned that a typhoon was something to be respected rather than feared as the Amis people interpret a typhoon as a bearer of new life. However, in 1994, he was almost killed in a typhoon, which caused him to reflect on the relationship between humans and nature.

For his “Action Project for Typhoon,” Rahic traced the route a typhoon typically takes through the Southern Islands including the Philippines and Indonesia, where he spent time with the ethnic minorities there, coming to realize the cultural and linguistic similarities between them and his Amis tribe.

For his installation he used driftwood and rubber slippers as in those impoverished days of his childhood, the tribe relied on the floating animals, pieces of driftwood and rubber slippers that washed up on the shore from a typhoon. In the exhibition space, hundreds of rubber slippers were suspended in a vortex over a wasted landscape. A video filmed on the shore of Zengwun River, Tainan showed the artist cutting a trail through an overgrown field of Miscanthus.

These simple items of detritus also links to the materials used by the various ethnic groups in the Southern Islands and can be seen as a metaphor for tribal peoples, still living in poverty on the periphery of society, like these washed up items that get churned up by a typhoon and drift endlessly. Not only was the artwork a look at Amis traditions and cultural beliefs, but connected to other ethnic minorities in areas tracked by a typhoon.

About the Artist

Rahic. Talif was born in 1962 into the Gangkou Tribe in Fongbin Township, Hualien County where he currently lives and works. Rahic. Talif is a well-known driftwood artist. He established his art studio in 1991 in Cepo and educates young students about woodcarving and traditional Amis culture. He actively encourages tribal people to reclaim and revitalize their own cultures through visual art and performances. He has exhibited in numerous solo and group art exhibitions in Taiwan and abroad, has numerous public art installations in Tainan and Hualien, and has won several awards for his work. He has also organized exhibitions.