【Exhibition】Gold Mines, Abyss, Mountain Spirit’s Temple-LIN,YAN-XIANG Solo Exhibition
08 29 /AM 10:00 - 10 19 /PM 5:00
–
Gold Mines, Abyss, Mountain Spirit’s Temple examines several mountain spirit temples in the Shuei-Jin-Jiou (水金九) area that emerged from mining activities, investigating the historical context of their localized development through the transformation of space and religious culture. This region has thrived since the Japanese colonial period through gold mining. Mine owners not only introduced modern extraction techniques but also transplanted mountain spirit worship as a spiritual foundation for miners’ safety and prayers. These beliefs integrated with existing local land worship, developing a creolized ritual system that manifested the intricate cultural negotiations and reinterpretations that emerged from the intersection of colonial authority, indigenous worldviews, and religious practices.
With the depletion of gold resources and the withdrawal of industry, these mountain spirit temples gradually lost their ceremonial functions and social connections. Today, only scattered mountain climbers occasionally pay their respects. In response to this fractured historical and spatial memory, this project designs and constructs a palanquin that incorporates both Taiwanese and Japanese religious elements, serving as a vessel for symbolic deity worship ceremonies a hundred years later. The palanquin processes along mountain trails, passing surviving mountain spirit temples and entering abandoned mine shafts, reenacting the ritual processions of divine visitations from historical festivals.
Through video documentation and spatial choreography, this artistic intervention constructs a narrative of temporal dislocation and historical retelling. It employs moving images as a method of historical intervention and memory reconstruction, offering the mountain spirit temples a contemporary mode of symbolic veneration, thereby addressing the futurity of local faith and collective memory.
The genre of his works mainly extends to video, Art Activism, and writing. He explores how people respond to their own biopolitics through the ecological environment, geopolitics, and religious beliefs. Through field practice and artistic research, he creates aesthetic experiences and texts. He uses video as a visualization of action in response. The concept of “Art Activism Cinema” is proposed and implemented to address social phenomena and his own feelings.
Recent projects include the study of land gods from the perspective of Animism, exemplified in “If Mountains Have Deities,” which showcased Xinbei and Taoyuan. Additionally, there’s the Aerotropolis project in his hometown, acquired by the government, where he utilizes publishing, Art Activism, and video documentation as forms of response. He also organizes the team “Delayed Takeo ff From Taoyuan” to address current events.
Selected for the Taoyuan International Art Award (2021, 2025), awarded Honorable Mention at the Taipei Art Awards (2024), First Prize at the NTUA Contemporary Art Award (2022), and selected for the Kaohsiung Award (2023). Participated in exhibitions such as the Green Island Human Rights Art Festival, Jakarta Biennale, and FLOW Art In Action, and others.