Weavers with the River II
2019-2020
inspired by The Sinackse River(公司田溪), New Taipei City, Taiwan
We see a civilization revealed in the vicissitudes of its river: people can hold such aspirations for the environments they live in. This river, having flowed alongside history in this narrow hinterland of Taiwan, has played the silent congenial host to the impetus of its people, from initial occupation to eventual development.
“Weavers with the River II” portrays the Sinackse River, the largest stream in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District. Once battle-scarred by the Sino-French War in 1884, then having endured waves of migration, it is today the site of the Danhai New Town, a development built right along the river’s shore.
I observed Sinackse River from nine angles and crafted this river map. Then, following that human claim to the right of river cultivation, I invited the local neighborhood to redefine the appearance of the creek. I first completed the “stream,” then emptied out the “shores.” Then I asked those who lived alongside the river, with some simple weaving techniques, to infuse the piece with their imaginations of the river shores as ideal, symbiotic spaces.
Participants included passionate long-term Tamsui-ites, scholars, parents with their children, and new neighborhood settlers. Some reminisced. Some faithfully related. Some rewrote the now and future. You can see flora and fauna, bygone history, brand new architecture, and enduring beliefs all faithfully woven between the strands, reflecting the intrinsically co-constituted nature of an environment and its people.
