Taiwan's installation art "Sea General's Crown", which guards the coast, won the Paris and Italian design awards!

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The installation art ─ "the Crown of the General of the Sea", based on the design concept of Taiwan fish grouper, is located in front of the Yunlinkou Lake Visitor Center on the Xibin Expressway of Taiwan Line 61. It has recently become a popular sign-in attraction. After winning the bronze medal in the Italian International A' Design Award in April this year, it won the DNA Design Award in Paris in 2020 again this month, becoming the best case of "more and more International"!

The tiara of General Hai was designed by rural artist Chen Yuliang and created by the team of Xie Dongzhe, chairman of the Taiwan Arts and Crafts Association and a domestic master of Jiaozhi pottery, transforming the traditional social belief of the sea goddess Mazu into the image of a sea general. and take the fish "gentian grouper" with Taiwan characteristics as the modeling inspiration, and present the appearance of Taiwan's multi-ethnic groups with colorful colors and elements.

Chen Yuliang says that Kouhu Lake has beautiful fish ponds, oceans, and wetlands. In the past, it received little attention because of its remote location and few living resources. He hopes to create the motivation for people to visit the area through art. Xu Zhenneng, director of the Yunjiannan National Scenic spot Management Office, said that compared with the high-heeled crystal church in the past, General Hai's tiara incorporated rich emotions on the ground. Not only outsiders were attracted to sign in, but locals also liked it very much. in the future, more local elements will be added to public art.

The tiara of General Hai at night (photo courtesy of Youcun Art and Culture Co., Ltd.)

Rural artists who regard Yunlin Sea Line as their third hometown, collect local elements for creation.

The bright and colorful "General Hai's tiara" is particularly eye-catching in Yunlinkou Lake. Chen Yuliang, the artist in charge of the design, says that General Hai's tiara has taken at least two or three years to brew. It was designed after conducting local fieldwork and collecting local elements.

"my first hometown is Kaohsiung, my second hometown is Tainan Tugou, and my third hometown is the Yunlin Sea Line." Chen Yuliang grew up in Kaohsiung and crouched in Tainan Tugou when he was a student. Ten years ago, he set up "Youcun Art and Culture Co., Ltd." in Tainan. He spent most of his time working in the countryside of Yunjiannan. His relationship with Kouhu was formed when he was working ten years ago. "Jackie Chan's assembly house was my first unexpected work on the Yunlin sea line, and then I accumulated countless works. I can't count the number of General Hai's tiara."

Chen Yuliang says that in principle, he only takes cases from the countryside, and growing up in the city, he has a lot of opportunities to get in touch with art. When he grows up, he walks into the countryside and finds that both living resources and art are scarce than those in the city. "of course you can talk about art in big cities, but I hope that the countryside can also enjoy art, and I use art to help places tell stories."

General Hai's tiara designer, rural artist Chen Yuwei (Photo courtesy of Youcun Art and Culture Co., Ltd.)

Colorful display of multi-ethnic groups, history and culture of the island

Asked about the creative concept of "General Hai's crown," Chen Yu-Liang said that he had hoped to create a special landmark for the entire Yunlin sea line, hoping to integrate ethnic groups, oceans, local beliefs, local elements, and so on. Hai General refers to the sea god Matsu. "Taiwan is surrounded by the sea. Taiwan's history and industrial economic development over the past 400 years are closely related to the sea. Taiwan has the ocean in its genes."

Chen Yu-Liang explains that it was the aborigines who first came to Taiwan. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Taiwan has been ruled by Chinese, Dutch, and Japanese. To this day, there are still multiple ethnic groups living on the island. General Hai's crown of colorful colors and various elements, that is, the presentation of multi-ethnic culture, "mosaic collage, there will be some abstraction and some concrete, but also show the integration of multi-culture."

The main color of "General Hai's crown" is red, which is often used as the representative color of Husi in Taiwan; the black-and-white and gold-edged ribbon represents Japan's meticulous; the mountain pattern is the transformation of aboriginal totems, using blue, green and orange colors to symbolize "atmosphere, sea and land" respectively; White love represents the white dolphins that appear along the coast every year on Mazu's birthday; fish lips prototype comes from the common broad-band green spotted sea snake on outlying islands. The fisheye in the shape of the rudder symbolizes the navigational spirit of the South Island speaking ethnic groups.

General Hai's tiara (photo courtesy of Youcun Art and Culture Co., Ltd.)

The appearance of grouper reminds us to cherish the ocean while eating seafood

"General Hai's crown" belongs to installation art, and it is also a new attempt for Chen Yuliang. "installation art is a purely visual creation. In the past, most of the creations in the countryside were combined with space, such as the design of community kitchens and tea-making spaces." And he still hopes that in addition to watching, the installation art can still interact with people, so he can make room for the fish belly so that people can enjoy the cool inside.

The appearance of "General Hai's crown" refers to the special appearance of gentian grouper. Chen Yuliang explains that in the past, people were in awe of the sea because their knowledge was underdeveloped, so they were quite pious to Poseidon. But modern people are far away from the sea. Interaction only leaves seafood on the table and water entertainment. "it was only during the visit that Kouhu knew that there were gentian groupers, but there were fewer and fewer."

Choose grouper to think, on the one hand, it has a special appearance of gentian grouper, and on the other hand, it uses the familiar seafood fish as the medium, and reminds you: "while enjoying the marine resources, we should also respect the ocean." Through Matsu, the goddess of the ocean, she became a general of the sea, symbolizing that in order to save the marine environment destroyed by human beings, she did not hesitate to sacrifice her body and leave her crown to tell people the significance of caring for the environment, so as to echo marine conservation and climate change.

Tsai Wendong, secretary of the Yunlin fishing Association, said that compared with the Gaoping area where groupers are produced, the weather in Yunlin is cold, so the number of gentian groupers is small, but it is not uncultivated. "you can use this installation art to let more people come to Yunlin, which is also good!"

"tell local stories with art and create opportunities to visit through art."

Chen Yuliang considered that the local environment is limelight and water tail. In order that the installation art can be preserved forever, the production material is made of stainless steel bars and steel mesh as the skeleton and cement mortar as the molding method. The surface layer is mainly made of bright glazed tiles, pottery pieces and traditional stone sipping methods, and embedded pottery pot lid embellishment to increase interest, and then with mirror glass material to form the main body of appearance, combining traditional and modern visual experience.

Although "General Hai's crown" is an installation art, the production process adopts the common construction methods and materials of dragon and Phoenix shapes on the roof of temples in modern Taiwan, which are used to transform the gods. In terms of color, the elements commonly used in the decoration of Taiwan's traditional temples and gods are also extracted, and the workshop of domestic Jiaozhi pottery master Hsieh Tung-Tseh is specially commissioned to produce pottery pieces and tiles fired in low-temperature glaze kilns, and the color of the finished tiles has an unstable effect. After mosaic, the color is riotous, but it has a visual sense of history.

"from my urbanite's point of view, Kouhu is a beautiful fishing village, but from a local point of view, Kouhu is very remote and has few resources, so it is a place to leave immediately." Chen Yuliang said that during the process of entering the countryside, he saw an outflow of people, and the sea line was even more serious, so he hoped to invest resources and energy into the sea line, telling local stories through art, and also through art creation's motivation to visit outsiders.

Cloud management office: the folks of Kouhu also like General Hai and will renovate the "church of high heels"

"General Hai's tiara" is not the first installation art in Yunjiannan. A few years ago, there was a high-heeled church in Chiayi cloth bags, which attracted a large number of tourists and received many comments, such as: the design has nothing to do with the region. Xu Zhenneng, director of the Yunjiannan National Scenic spot Management Office, said that "General Hai's tiara" has a stronger connection with the place than the church with high heels, and that in the future public art will be improved and designed with local elements.

Xu Zhenneng, a former deputy director of the Chiayi County Bureau of Culture and Tourism, explains that the high-heeled church was originally designed from an industrial and engineering point of view. Although its special appearance attracts tourists, the local area has no sense of it. "it's not very connected with the place. It's very abrupt to the cloth bag people, like a foreign object."

Xu Zhenneng says that he now hopes that public art can be combined with the ground. In the case of "General Hai's tiara," Chen Yuliang is a young man in the south. Before creating, Chen Yuliang makes an in-depth investigation and understanding of local history, and traditional craftsmanship is also added to the whole work. After completion, the overall texture is quite high. "with rich local feelings, not to mention that outsiders have been clocking in all the time, locals also like it."

Xu Zhenneng says that the town image of "General Hai's tiara" is enhanced by the increase in the number of tourists and the promotion of local sightseeing, and now many young people have returned home. "although there was a serious population outflow in the past, the children have grown up. People who are willing to stay and return to their hometown especially cherish their hometown." He revealed that seeing the impact of "General Hai's tiara" on the local area, he is now inviting five artists to transform the high-heeled church, hoping to integrate the local elements of salt and wind into the cloth bag, and will also go to Germany to compete in the future.