When Men’s House Meet Art—The Possibilities for Indigenous Culture Infiltrates Art

2017/08/05

Written by Wu Sih-Fong

Photo provided by Wu, Sih-fong

When I went to Taitung to interview the Chu-Yin Culture and Arts Troupe which was nominated by Taishin Arts Award for its “Mailulay: Traces on the Wall” last year, we had our interview in New Malan Men’s House. At the end of our interview, several elders came by calling. The house suddenly got bustling. The elders were singing, dancing and surrounded by the historical fact that due to the cholera outbreak in 1919, the post-war land registration system and the indigenous-Han business trade, traditional lands had been sold little by little and finally the original seven men’s houses were all gone. At the moment, even the new men’s house is not big enough for holding traditional ceremony, Amis people still gather here to sing polyphony, revive their culture and endow a new meaning to men’s house.

In Katratripulr’s ‘No Cemetery Relocation’ movement, Balaguan, men’s house in Pinuyumayan , played the traditional spirit of coordinating internal public affairs and concentrating men’s forces. Listening to Sanpuy’s Palakuwan, in his ablum ‘Dalan’, though one might not understand the meaning of lyrics, he would still be drawn by the music atmosphere which is constructed by the live recording of ceremony and prayers. We can see from these examples that the men’s houses in real life have transformed to be the creative cultural symbols by responding contemporary society and environment through the processing of different art forms.

An example in performing arts is ‘Masingkiay’ at Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MONTUE) in May, 2017. Fangas Nayaw was invited to make an exhibition focusing on the process presentation. The exhibition was installed with beer cases, wooden barrel tables, canvas, western style dining tables, a bar, a piano, pictures of work progress, and the small piece of papers that audiences had to submit at entrance. On which, audiences had to introduce themselves as well as finish this sentence: ’I think indigenous people are all…’. It said in the curating discourse:” The practice of this exhibition and performance attempts to break peoples’ existing stereotypes of the indigenous’ symbols, totems, apparels, music and dance, and ceremonies. This time we create a men’s house at this museum and invite the audience to enter the indigenous peoples’ social scenario . One will experience the diverse perspectives of indigenous peoples through their daily diet, people’s talk and share, as well as the new activities in the museum.”

Another example of reverse thinking as a Pailang , a non-indigenous , is the second Taiwan East Coast Land Art Festival in 2016. The theme was ‘poetic living: a rest stop in landscape’. With different activities as site specific creation, open studio, Moonlight and Ocean Music Festival, and art forums, it aimed to create the ‘leisure aesthetics’ in the east coast. The festival was calling for:

A kind of land art or environment art that one can ‘walk in’, ‘to see’, ‘to live’ and ‘to play with’. For example, a giant sculpture shaped with the landscape; a tree house perfectly attached with the tree; a relaxing tea house; floating light sculptures and installations that are visually pleasant; installation works with environment awareness; poetic visual /formative arts etc.

Photo provided by Wu, Sih-fong

Eleng Luluan constructed the wide but light flying ‘Wind Cradle’ with bamboo, sleeper, driftwood, hemp rope and iron. A swing settled in the bird’s belly, the shadow cast by the wing cooled the heat down. At the same location, Nogdup used bamboo and elastic rope to form a resting place, ‘Euroba : Bath in the Landscape, Silent Microcosm’, where one could lie or sit down and enjoy the vast Pacific Ocean in front of his eyes. Maiko Sugano’s ‘Turtle’ chose a low-lying area to set up the sea turtle’s limbs and shell at both sides of horizon with stones and woods. The viewers had to walk down the depression as if they were hiding in the tortoise and looking at the sea. Through "walking in" and "looking", the viewer unconsciously adjusted his position of coexistence with the earth, and reconstructed the link with nature and land.

On the other hand, Land Art Festival could be said as a presenting platform of indigenous modern arts transformation.. Changes occurred from the ‘artwork’ to ‘field’, from single medium to composite medium. There are more installations being presented. The transition had been witnessed by the early art-engaged-space project, ‘Pakeriran Project’ at Makotaay, one of Amis village, to the current ‘2017 Mipaliw Wet Land Art Festival’, even the important indigenous modern art scene ‘Floated Tribe’ at the beginning of this century. It shows the structure process of the ‘spirit of field’ and the steering of ‘installation’.

In festivals that emphasize on the relations between creation and location, the wind direction and climate etc., artists carefully guide the viewers’ sight through the artworks with right scale and proper installation . They create a space allowing culture to precipitate and viewers to feel slowly and appropriately. At the over-developed east coast, it can be said to be a reconstructed cultural field which is transformed from men’s houses or Taolan (Amis gathering place).