Artists bring driftwood to life in Taitung

Every artist has his or her vision, but their works nevertheless share the themes of remembrance, respect for Mother Nature and the celebration of rebirth and revival.

Dozens of artists from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Canada have gathered in a scenic coastal park in eastern Taiwan's Taitung City facing the Pacific Ocean, where they are sculpting lifeless driftwood into decorative items and installation artworks.

The driftwood is all a result of Typhoon Morakot, which devastated Taiwan in early August, leaving more than 700 people dead or missing and thousands homeless.

Coastal areas of eastern and southern Taiwan were swamped with an estimated one million tons of driftwood in the wake of the typhoon, as the storm cut a swathe through the country's forests and washed down many precious trees and deadwood from the mountains to the sea.

In Taitung County alone, 177,000 tons of driftwood have so far been collected and the cleanup work is still very far from over.

While the Council of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau went into brainstorming mode thinking of how to dispose of the wood, Chang Pin, head of the bureau's Taitung Forest District Office, came up with the idea of inviting artists to turn the “waste into gold.”

His concept immediately won the heart of Lin Yung-fa, curator of the National Taitung Living Art Center, who agreed to assist in organizing a series of events to bring the notion to reality, and cross-agency support from the COA, the Council for Cultural Affairs and several other government units allowed the wood carving fair to take place.

The COA has provided 3,000 tons of driftwood for artists from home and abroad to “breathe new life into what was cruelly brought down by nature.”

For Chang, driftwood is not useless trash, but full of cultural, artistic and ecological value.

“It would be a pity if the driftwood were to be wasted... By organizing the event, we hope that with the artists' aesthetic skills, new vitality can be infused into the waste wood,” Chang said in an interview. “We believe the work created for this event will symbolize Taiwan's re-emergence from the ashes of natural calamity.”

Lin shared his view, saying that nature is almighty and full of possibilities. “It's painful to see so many beautiful centuries-old trees blown down by the storm... but it's joyful to see the wood regain life under the dexterous hands of the artists... The artistic creations will help heal the wounds caused by Morakot,” he said.

The driftwood carving event started with an indigenous Puyuma ritual Nov. 21 and will run through Nov. 28, after which the works will be put on permanent display at museums and galleries around the country.

Eight huge pieces of deadwood have been erected in the beach park to symbolize the cruelty of Typhoon Morakot, Lin added.

A-Sun Wu, a renowned painter and sculptor, was invited to carve the centerpiece for the event and is working on a 1,000-year-old camphor tree uprooted by the typhoon. “The twisted roots and intricate gnarls of the huge old tree form a mysterious mass that looks awesome, like a black hole in the universe,” Wu said in a recent interview.

Dubbed “Sun, Moon, Star,” his work epitomizes the immense energy of the universe and consists of many images symbolizing the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang, as well as the Tibetan antelope, the sharp-nosed viper or hundred-pacer snake sacred to the Paiwan tribe, the water buffalo and animal bones, to emphasize the importance of harmony between humans and nature.

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