Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

The Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture collaborates with the Taiwan Women's Art Association (TWAA) to present LOVE AND HOPE – 2022 World Women’s Art Festival: The Taishin Project, a satellite exhibition of LOVE AND HOPE – 2022 World Women’s Art Festival, at the Taishin Tower during the length of the art festival.  

Since its establishment in 2000, the TWAA has been spreading love and hope emanating through women’s artistic energy in the past twenty-two years, and has played a vital role in the construction of Taiwanese culture and art, while making an effort for the peace and joy in the world. LOVE AND HOPE – 2022 World Women’s Art Festival: The Taishin Project showcases Aruwai Kaumaka’s A Piling Dream and Jun T. Lai’s The Ocean Nation of Island. With their respective artistic languages, the artists interpret the passion, courage, and pulsating life of Taiwan and her people. In this pandemic-inflicted era, it is hoped that the power of contemporary women’s art can serve as a bridge to connect Taiwan and the world, and activate the future with the energy of “Love and Hope.” This exhibition germinates in Taitung – the land where mountains and the ocean meet – and forms a core network with three art institutions in Taiwan – the National Museum of Prehistory, the Taitung Art Museum, and the National Taitung Living Art Center, while connecting different places with satellite exhibitions to transcend regional and communal differences and unite the entire Taiwan, demonstrating the achievements and power of women.

A Piling Dream by Aruwai Kaumaka

Aruwai Kaumaka, born in Davalan in Taiwan’s Pingtung County, Paiwan artist Aruwai Kaumaka is the “mazazangilan” (meaning “child of the sun” in the Paiwan language, and commonly translated as “chieftain”). Her art practice engages in weaving, craft design, and jewelry design. In recent years, she has gradually shifted towards soft sculpture and installation art. Her work nurtures a fundamental self-narratives of the female sex: women are independent individuals, but they also form an indispensable center to bring people closer in terms of community and inheritance. Therefore, Aruwai Kaumaka’s art represents her way of microcosmically approaching and observing women’s rhythm of life, while dialectically reflecting on the topic of the female consciousness. The imagery in her early works mostly feature a sense of blossoming splendor and nobleness. However, since the Typhoon Morakot in 2009, which forced her people to relocate, her work has turned to a deeper inner realm, hoping to cohere and coalesce her community to find the power for moving forward.

The Ocean Nation of Island by Jun T. Lai

Jun T. Lai, Born in Taipei City, Jun T. Lai’s art practice engages in diverse forms and style, including new media painting, three-dimensional sculpture, installation, conceptual action, and public art. Through art, Lai has been realizing the creative context of her life. Since 2000 onward, she has launched a series of art projects themed on the topic of “Wonderland.” Using various subtopics, such as “youth,” island,” and “ocean,” she has constructed the cultural context, which informs the subjective position of her own and that of Taiwan. Her works have been included in collections of art museums in both Taiwan and abroad. She is the founder of Studio of Contemporary Art (SOCA) and Nanpaly Studio. She has been featured in Existence．Change．Jun T. Lai, which is part of the “Artist Biography Series” published by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Lai has been an artist-in-residence at Tung Ho Steel, and is also the founder as well as the first and twelfth president of the Taiwan Women’s Art Association (TWAA).