We recently sat down with Wen-Jen Deng one of the artists in residence at the Taiwanese American Arts Council’s House 17 on Governors Island and Ming Turner, curator of Wen-Jen’s art exhibit :The Embedded Stitch- Contemporary Fiber Art, which is currently showing at Tenri Cultural Institute until June 28th
According to Deng’s curator Ming Turner, “Deng is a core member of the influential Taiwanese artist collective, Hantoo Art Group. Her early works were primarily oil paintings which incorporated embroidery and collage using traditional Taiwanese floral fabrics. Deng often draws inspiration from Taiwanese food culture— her earlier pieces explored the island’s distinctive betel nut culture, while more recent works have focused on everyday culinary traditions and the cultural heritage of the Sirayu Pingpu people.”
Special thanks to Ming Turner for translation assistance during this interview.
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
- Wen-Jen’s upbringing in Taiwan and how she knew she wanted to be an artist
- What Wen-Jen thinks an artist’s role in the world is
- Why Wen-Jen studied art in France and how she was inspired by Marc Chagall
- How Wen-Jen started off doing oil painting as an artist
- How Wen-Jen switched from using oil paint as her medium to fiber and textiles
- How Wen-Jen worked in a textile shop making Chinese dresses while she was a student in France
- Why her early source of inspiration was food
- Her series of work that focused on lotus shoes and pig’s hooves (pigs feet), betel nuts, and other everyday Taiwanese cuisine
- How Wen-Jen discovered her mother’s was from the Siraya tribe during her 2017 residency at Soulangh Cultural Park in Tainan, and that inspired her to move her focus from food to indigenous culture
- How Wen-Jen learned indigenous weaving techniques
- How Wen-Jen’s mother was a seamstress but Wen-jen did not pick out any of those skills from her mother
- How Wen-Jen taught herself to embroider when she was working in the textile shop in France
- How all of the embroidery and sewing on Wen-Jen’s works are done by hand
- How in the process of weaving and embroidering Wen-Jen gets in a focused state of meditation
- The field work that Wen-Jen does related to her artwork
- Ming shared some of her thoughts on the significance of Wen-Jen’s artwork
- Wen-Jen’s artwork “Oyster Noodles” which will be on display at the TAAC Governors Island House 17
- How Taiwan’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy has impacted artists in Taiwan
- How artists in Taiwan get funded
- How Wen-Jen’s sculptural piece which is shaped like the island of Taiwan and shows its topography will be displayed at the TAAC House 17 on June 21
Related Links:
Wen-Jen Deng: https://www.facebook.com/wenjendeng
https://www.instagram.com/wenjendeng/
https://chevalvolant.wordpress.com/
https://waa.org.tw/en/members/wen-jen-deng/
Tenri Culture Institute: https://www.tenri.org/gallery/
Governors Island history: https://www.govisland.com/history
Lenape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenape
On Lenape history: https://libguides.pratt.edu/c.php?g=1088684&p=9380209
Food Binding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding
Lotus shoe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_shoe
Savoring Taiwanese Pork Trotters: https://rb.gy/fmqb41
Betel nut: https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/betel-nut/
Betel nut chewing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betel_nut_chewing
Betel nut beauty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betel_nut_beauty
Soulangh Cultural Park: https://soulangh.tnc.gov.tw/
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