Paiwan artist Aruwai Kaumakan said she was inspired to revive the art of Paiwan traditional weaving after receiving a dream vision from her ancestors following Typhoon Morakot in 2009.
Aruwai, who last year won the Pulima Art Festival’s grand award in the visual arts, on Monday opened an exhibition at Pintung University of Science Technology, where she studies fashion design and business management.
Utilizing traditional totems and elaborate scrollwork, her woven creations tell the stories of home and the lives of women, with her award-winning series of work. Pulse (脈動), prominently featuring the motifs of swirling river water and black slate tiles of Paiwan houses.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jo, Taipei Times
Daughter of the chieftain of Dashe (大社) village in Pintung County’s Sandimen Township (三地門) — one of the three communities devastated by the typhoon — Aruwai said she grew up immersed in the rituals and symbols that designated a woman’s social status in Paiwan society.
Her mother and grandmother, who she said were her first artistic mentors, taught her how to wear ceremonial headgear and clothes, as well as the meaning of each item, she said.
Her mother is particularly adept at taking apart traditional textiles and reassembling them into new creations, which inspired her to weave her creations using recycled cloth and other everyday fabrics, Aruwai said.
The scrollwork that appears in her creations as veins, butterflies and women’s ornamental hair pins is a technique she learned from jewelry designer Lee Fang-yu (黎芳瑜), she added.
“An artist needs to know where she comes from and where she is going to for her creations to soar,” Aruwai said. “More than a scion to an aristocratic line, I see myself as a torchbearer of my culture, which I embrace through creativity.”
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS