Conference | Layers of History: The Art of Taiwan and Its Multiplicities

Layers of History: The Art of Taiwan and Its Multiplicities speakers

February 28, 2025

9:15AM - 5:00PM

Dullles Hall 168

Add to Calendar 2025-02-28 09:15:00 2025-02-28 17:00:00 Conference | Layers of History: The Art of Taiwan and Its Multiplicities Layers of History: The Art of Taiwan and Its MultiplicitiesFriday, February 28, 2025 | 9:15am-12:30pm, 2:00pm-5:00pmLocationThe conference will be held onsite at The Ohio State University in Dulles Hall, room 168 and live streamed via Zoom.This event is open and free to the public. OrganizersChristina Wei-Szu Burke Mathison, Associate Professor of Teaching, The Ohio State UniversitySu-hsing Lin, Professor, Tainan National University of the ArtsSummaryIn recent years in the United States, Taiwan has become better known in the context of its geo-political situation with China. But even this contemporary issue is steeped in a deep history of colonization and invasion. Beginning as early as the seventeenth century, Taiwan has been a land traded in treaties and colonized my multiple nations such as the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. At the end of the nineteenth century, Japan began a fifty-year colonization of Taiwan that ended with the Nationalist Chinese army taking over the island in 1945. After a major massacre in 1947 with over 20,000 victims, and subsequent decades of martial law, Taiwan elected its first Taiwanese-born president in 1996. Since then, Taiwan began a process of acknowledging and processing these layers of colonization and invasions. Naturally, the art of Taiwan reflects what the contemporary artist Mali Wu has identified as Taiwan’s multiplicity, the layers and diversity of Taiwanese culture and history. This is seen in the work of indigenous artists, those active during the Japanese colonization, and in the works of contemporary artists of Taiwan today.As contemporary artists continue to reflect on these earlier periods in their work, what does the art of twentieth century Taiwan look like in all its multiplicities? Gathering an outstanding group of scholars from the United States and Taiwan, this conference seeks to explore the multi-faceted nature of Taiwan’s historical record through various media. The conference will explore the complexities of how Taiwanese art is defined and the layers of history and colonialisms that have impacted art making in Taiwan over the past century. The conference is scheduled for February 28, 2025 from 9:30am-5:45pm, and will consist of five speakers and conclude with a roundtable discussion. February 28 was chosen for its historical context, a national holiday commemorating the over 20,000 victims of the 228-Massacre. This tragic event and the subsequent erasure and then eventual recognition of the incident reveals the complicated nature of exploring twentieth and twenty-first century Taiwanese art.SpeakersMali Wu, Artist Born in Taipei, WU Mali is an artists and Honorary Professor of Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Art, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan. A highly influential practitioner and theorist of socially engaged art, she has developed numerous projects over a thirty-year long career. Her most recent solo show, ‘Dáng Wu Mali’ too place in the Kaohsiung Museum of Arts in 2023. ‘Working in Public 2006-2011’ in Taipei 2011. Her work has been included in biennials such as Singapore Biennale (2022), Taipei Biennial (2008, 1998), Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (2005); Asian Pacific Triennial (1999) and the 46th Venice Biennial, Italy (1995), among others. Wu Mali received Taiwan’s National Award for Arts in 2016, and Taishin Arts Award in 2013. She co-curated the 11th Taipei Biennale, 2018. Since 2020 she initiated and is in charge of the ‘Art for Social Change,’ an artist-in-residence program supported by National Tainan Living Arts Center. An-yi Pan, Associate Professor, Cornell UniversityAn-yi Pan’s primary research focus is Chinese art, particularly Chinese Buddhist art and Taiwanese art. In the Buddhist art field, he explores the relationship between images and religious practices. Since 2004 he has curated three exhibitions on contemporary Taiwanese art at the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. Each exhibition has been accompanied by a scholarly exhibition catalogue. His forthcoming books, Embattled Modernity: Postwar Taiwanese Art I & II, examine key issues concerning art historical debates in the two decades immediately after World War II.Su-hsing Lin, Professor, Tainan National University of the Arts Su-hsing Lin is a Professor at Tainan National University of the Arts. She received her B.A. degree in History from Tunghai University, Taiwan, and earned both her MA and PhD in Chinese Art History from The Ohio State University. She was an Assistant Professor at Shu-te University in the department of Visual Communication Design (2004-2009) before joining the Department of Art History at Tainan National University of the Arts. Her research principally focuses on graphic design in modern Chinese art, Taiwanese art, and visual culture in Shanghai and its interactions with Japan and the West in the 20th century.Kuo-sheng Lai, Assistant Curator, National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Chiayi, TaiwanDr. Kuo-Sheng Lai is an assistant curator at the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, where he organizes education and performing art programs, gives tours to foreign dignitaries, and helps train English docents. Besides museum work, he also teaches Museology and Asian Art courses at the National Chung Cheng University. Dr. Lai received his PhD in Art History from the University of Maryland. His approach to research emphasizes exchanges. His dissertation discusses exchanges of art between China and Japan in the early twentieth century. His recent research includes studies on art exchanges between Taiwan, China, Japan, the U.S., and Europe. His 2024 article "The Secretive Art Storages in East Asia and Their Rediscoveries," published in Yishuguandian ACT, discusses art and artifacts hidden in the past and rediscovered in modern times. With exchanges in mind, modern international relations will be part of the discussion in his presentation on Chang Dai-chien.Belinda Qian He, Assistant Professor, University of MarylandBelinda Qian He is an Assistant Professor of East Asian and Cinema & Media Studies and an affiliate in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work spans film and media studies, global Asian studies, and legal humanities. She co-edited a special double issue “A Deep Focus on Global Chinese Cinephilia” for the Journal of Chinese Cinemas and has collaborated on the Global Cinema collection of the Media History Digital Library at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Currently, she is completing a book manuscript temporarily titled Expose and Punish: Trial by Moving Images in Revolutionary Times. In 2024, she curated the “Machines and Me: A Filmless Festival” screening series, as part of The Work of Self-Assembly in Global Chinese/Asian Media and Art initiative supported by UMD’s Arts for All Program. Conference ScheduleFriday, February 28, 20259:15-9:30 Welcome9:30-10:20 Mali Wu, Artist, “Art as Social Catalyst: On My Art Journey and the Recent Development on the Taiwan Art Scene”10:30-11:20 An-yi Pan, Cornell University, “Leftist Art and Literature in Postwar Taiwan” 11:30-12:20 Su-hsing Lin, Tainan National University of the Arts, “The Artistic Relationship Between Taiwan and the United States During the Cold War Period – The Case Study of Ran Inting” 12:30-1:45 Lunch Break2:00-2:50 Kuo-sheng Lai, National Palace Museum Southern Branch, “Master of Public Relations: Chang Dai-Chien and Taiwan”3:10-3:50 Belinda Qian He, University of Maryland, “Wildness at Work: Planting Moving Images and Justice in Taiwan”4:00-4:30 Roundtable4:45-5:00 Closing RemarksThere will be 10-minute breaks between presentations to allow for entrance/exit. Please feel free to use the breaks between presentations to join as your schedule allows.Co-SponsorsCollege of Arts and Sciences, Arts and Humanities Small GrantDepartment of History of ArtInstitute for Chinese StudiesDepartment of East Asian Languages and LiteratureDepartment of ArtIf you require accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Allison Buenger at buenger.2@osu.edu. Requests made two weeks before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date. Dullles Hall 168 OSU ASC Drupal 8 ascwebservices@osu.edu America/New_York public

2025-02-28 09:15:00 2025-02-28 17:00:00 Conference | Layers of History: The Art of Taiwan and Its Multiplicities Layers of History: The Art of Taiwan and Its MultiplicitiesFriday, February 28, 2025 | 9:15am-12:30pm, 2:00pm-5:00pmLocationThe conference will be held onsite at The Ohio State University in Dulles Hall, room 168 and live streamed via Zoom.This event is open and free to the public. OrganizersChristina Wei-Szu Burke Mathison, Associate Professor of Teaching, The Ohio State UniversitySu-hsing Lin, Professor, Tainan National University of the ArtsSummaryIn recent years in the United States, Taiwan has become better known in the context of its geo-political situation with China. But even this contemporary issue is steeped in a deep history of colonization and invasion. Beginning as early as the seventeenth century, Taiwan has been a land traded in treaties and colonized my multiple nations such as the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. At the end of the nineteenth century, Japan began a fifty-year colonization of Taiwan that ended with the Nationalist Chinese army taking over the island in 1945. After a major massacre in 1947 with over 20,000 victims, and subsequent decades of martial law, Taiwan elected its first Taiwanese-born president in 1996. Since then, Taiwan began a process of acknowledging and processing these layers of colonization and invasions. Naturally, the art of Taiwan reflects what the contemporary artist Mali Wu has identified as Taiwan’s multiplicity, the layers and diversity of Taiwanese culture and history. This is seen in the work of indigenous artists, those active during the Japanese colonization, and in the works of contemporary artists of Taiwan today.As contemporary artists continue to reflect on these earlier periods in their work, what does the art of twentieth century Taiwan look like in all its multiplicities? Gathering an outstanding group of scholars from the United States and Taiwan, this conference seeks to explore the multi-faceted nature of Taiwan’s historical record through various media. The conference will explore the complexities of how Taiwanese art is defined and the layers of history and colonialisms that have impacted art making in Taiwan over the past century. The conference is scheduled for February 28, 2025 from 9:30am-5:45pm, and will consist of five speakers and conclude with a roundtable discussion. February 28 was chosen for its historical context, a national holiday commemorating the over 20,000 victims of the 228-Massacre. This tragic event and the subsequent erasure and then eventual recognition of the incident reveals the complicated nature of exploring twentieth and twenty-first century Taiwanese art.SpeakersMali Wu, Artist Born in Taipei, WU Mali is an artists and Honorary Professor of Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Art, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan. A highly influential practitioner and theorist of socially engaged art, she has developed numerous projects over a thirty-year long career. Her most recent solo show, ‘Dáng Wu Mali’ too place in the Kaohsiung Museum of Arts in 2023. ‘Working in Public 2006-2011’ in Taipei 2011. Her work has been included in biennials such as Singapore Biennale (2022), Taipei Biennial (2008, 1998), Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (2005); Asian Pacific Triennial (1999) and the 46th Venice Biennial, Italy (1995), among others. Wu Mali received Taiwan’s National Award for Arts in 2016, and Taishin Arts Award in 2013. She co-curated the 11th Taipei Biennale, 2018. Since 2020 she initiated and is in charge of the ‘Art for Social Change,’ an artist-in-residence program supported by National Tainan Living Arts Center. An-yi Pan, Associate Professor, Cornell UniversityAn-yi Pan’s primary research focus is Chinese art, particularly Chinese Buddhist art and Taiwanese art. In the Buddhist art field, he explores the relationship between images and religious practices. Since 2004 he has curated three exhibitions on contemporary Taiwanese art at the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. Each exhibition has been accompanied by a scholarly exhibition catalogue. His forthcoming books, Embattled Modernity: Postwar Taiwanese Art I & II, examine key issues concerning art historical debates in the two decades immediately after World War II.Su-hsing Lin, Professor, Tainan National University of the Arts Su-hsing Lin is a Professor at Tainan National University of the Arts. She received her B.A. degree in History from Tunghai University, Taiwan, and earned both her MA and PhD in Chinese Art History from The Ohio State University. She was an Assistant Professor at Shu-te University in the department of Visual Communication Design (2004-2009) before joining the Department of Art History at Tainan National University of the Arts. Her research principally focuses on graphic design in modern Chinese art, Taiwanese art, and visual culture in Shanghai and its interactions with Japan and the West in the 20th century.Kuo-sheng Lai, Assistant Curator, National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Chiayi, TaiwanDr. Kuo-Sheng Lai is an assistant curator at the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, where he organizes education and performing art programs, gives tours to foreign dignitaries, and helps train English docents. Besides museum work, he also teaches Museology and Asian Art courses at the National Chung Cheng University. Dr. Lai received his PhD in Art History from the University of Maryland. His approach to research emphasizes exchanges. His dissertation discusses exchanges of art between China and Japan in the early twentieth century. His recent research includes studies on art exchanges between Taiwan, China, Japan, the U.S., and Europe. His 2024 article "The Secretive Art Storages in East Asia and Their Rediscoveries," published in Yishuguandian ACT, discusses art and artifacts hidden in the past and rediscovered in modern times. With exchanges in mind, modern international relations will be part of the discussion in his presentation on Chang Dai-chien.Belinda Qian He, Assistant Professor, University of MarylandBelinda Qian He is an Assistant Professor of East Asian and Cinema & Media Studies and an affiliate in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work spans film and media studies, global Asian studies, and legal humanities. She co-edited a special double issue “A Deep Focus on Global Chinese Cinephilia” for the Journal of Chinese Cinemas and has collaborated on the Global Cinema collection of the Media History Digital Library at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Currently, she is completing a book manuscript temporarily titled Expose and Punish: Trial by Moving Images in Revolutionary Times. In 2024, she curated the “Machines and Me: A Filmless Festival” screening series, as part of The Work of Self-Assembly in Global Chinese/Asian Media and Art initiative supported by UMD’s Arts for All Program. Conference ScheduleFriday, February 28, 20259:15-9:30 Welcome9:30-10:20 Mali Wu, Artist, “Art as Social Catalyst: On My Art Journey and the Recent Development on the Taiwan Art Scene”10:30-11:20 An-yi Pan, Cornell University, “Leftist Art and Literature in Postwar Taiwan” 11:30-12:20 Su-hsing Lin, Tainan National University of the Arts, “The Artistic Relationship Between Taiwan and the United States During the Cold War Period – The Case Study of Ran Inting” 12:30-1:45 Lunch Break2:00-2:50 Kuo-sheng Lai, National Palace Museum Southern Branch, “Master of Public Relations: Chang Dai-Chien and Taiwan”3:10-3:50 Belinda Qian He, University of Maryland, “Wildness at Work: Planting Moving Images and Justice in Taiwan”4:00-4:30 Roundtable4:45-5:00 Closing RemarksThere will be 10-minute breaks between presentations to allow for entrance/exit. Please feel free to use the breaks between presentations to join as your schedule allows.Co-SponsorsCollege of Arts and Sciences, Arts and Humanities Small GrantDepartment of History of ArtInstitute for Chinese StudiesDepartment of East Asian Languages and LiteratureDepartment of ArtIf you require accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Allison Buenger at buenger.2@osu.edu. Requests made two weeks before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date. Dullles Hall 168 America/New_York public

Wild lilies in the boudoir. Still from Ming Ghost (dir. Chiu Kang-chien, Taiwan, 1990). Courtesy of Crowth International Entertainment Co., Ltd.

Chang Dai-chien, Scenic View of Suhua Highway painting

Chang Dai-chien, Scenic View of Suhua Highway 蘇花攬勝 1956

ran inting presents scenes of america city hall philadelphia painting

Layers of History: The Art of Taiwan and Its Multiplicities

Friday, February 28, 2025 | 9:15am-12:30pm, 2:00pm-5:00pm

Location

The conference will be held onsite at The Ohio State University in Dulles Hall, room 168 and live streamed via Zoom.

This event is open and free to the public.

Organizers

Christina Wei-Szu Burke Mathison, Associate Professor of Teaching, The Ohio State University
Su-hsing Lin, Professor, Tainan National University of the Arts

Summary

In recent years in the United States, Taiwan has become better known in the context of its geo-political situation with China. But even this contemporary issue is steeped in a deep history of colonization and invasion. Beginning as early as the seventeenth century, Taiwan has been a land traded in treaties and colonized my multiple nations such as the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. At the end of the nineteenth century, Japan began a fifty-year colonization of Taiwan that ended with the Nationalist Chinese army taking over the island in 1945. After a major massacre in 1947 with over 20,000 victims, and subsequent decades of martial law, Taiwan elected its first Taiwanese-born president in 1996. Since then, Taiwan began a process of acknowledging and processing these layers of colonization and invasions.

Naturally, the art of Taiwan reflects what the contemporary artist Mali Wu has identified as Taiwan’s multiplicity, the layers and diversity of Taiwanese culture and history. This is seen in the work of indigenous artists, those active during the Japanese colonization, and in the works of contemporary artists of Taiwan today.

As contemporary artists continue to reflect on these earlier periods in their work, what does the art of twentieth century Taiwan look like in all its multiplicities? Gathering an outstanding group of scholars from the United States and Taiwan, this conference seeks to explore the multi-faceted nature of Taiwan’s historical record through various media. The conference will explore the complexities of how Taiwanese art is defined and the layers of history and colonialisms that have impacted art making in Taiwan over the past century.

The conference is scheduled for February 28, 2025 from 9:30am-5:45pm, and will consist of five speakers and conclude with a roundtable discussion. February 28 was chosen for its historical context, a national holiday commemorating the over 20,000 victims of the 228-Massacre. This tragic event and the subsequent erasure and then eventual recognition of the incident reveals the complicated nature of exploring twentieth and twenty-first century Taiwanese art.

Speakers

Mali Wu, Artist

Born in Taipei, WU Mali is an artists and Honorary Professor of Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Art, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan. A highly influential practitioner and theorist of socially engaged art, she has developed numerous projects over a thirty-year long career. Her most recent solo show, ‘Dáng Wu Mali’ too place in the Kaohsiung Museum of Arts in 2023. ‘Working in Public 2006-2011’ in Taipei 2011. Her work has been included in biennials such as Singapore Biennale (2022), Taipei Biennial (2008, 1998), Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (2005); Asian Pacific Triennial (1999) and the 46^th Venice Biennial, Italy (1995), among others. Wu Mali received Taiwan’s National Award for Arts in 2016, and Taishin Arts Award in 2013. She co-curated the 11^th Taipei Biennale, 2018. Since 2020 she initiated and is in charge of the ‘Art for Social Change,’ an artist-in-residence program supported by National Tainan Living Arts Center.

An-yi Pan, Associate Professor, Cornell University

An-yi Pan’s primary research focus is Chinese art, particularly Chinese Buddhist art and Taiwanese art. In the Buddhist art field, he explores the relationship between images and religious practices. Since 2004 he has curated three exhibitions on contemporary Taiwanese art at the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. Each exhibition has been accompanied by a scholarly exhibition catalogue. His forthcoming books, Embattled Modernity: Postwar Taiwanese Art I & II, examine key issues concerning art historical debates in the two decades immediately after World War II.

Su-hsing Lin, Professor, Tainan National University of the Arts

Su-hsing Lin is a Professor at Tainan National University of the Arts. She received her B.A. degree in History from Tunghai University, Taiwan, and earned both her MA and PhD in Chinese Art History from The Ohio State University. She was an Assistant Professor at Shu-te University in the department of Visual Communication Design (2004-2009) before joining the Department of Art History at Tainan National University of the Arts. Her research principally focuses on graphic design in modern Chinese art, Taiwanese art, and visual culture in Shanghai and its interactions with Japan and the West in the 20^th century.

Kuo-sheng Lai, Assistant Curator, National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Chiayi, Taiwan

Dr. Kuo-Sheng Lai is an assistant curator at the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, where he organizes education and performing art programs, gives tours to foreign dignitaries, and helps train English docents. Besides museum work, he also teaches Museology and Asian Art courses at the National Chung Cheng University. Dr. Lai received his PhD in Art History from the University of Maryland. His approach to research emphasizes exchanges. His dissertation discusses exchanges of art between China and Japan in the early twentieth century. His recent research includes studies on art exchanges between Taiwan, China, Japan, the U.S., and Europe. His 2024 article "The Secretive Art Storages in East Asia and Their Rediscoveries," published in Yishuguandian ACT, discusses art and artifacts hidden in the past and rediscovered in modern times. With exchanges in mind, modern international relations will be part of the discussion in his presentation on Chang Dai-chien.

Belinda Qian He, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland

Belinda Qian He is an Assistant Professor of East Asian and Cinema & Media Studies and an affiliate in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work spans film and media studies, global Asian studies, and legal humanities. She co-edited a special double issue “A Deep Focus on Global Chinese Cinephilia” for the Journal of Chinese Cinemas and has collaborated on the Global Cinema collection of the Media History Digital Library at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Currently, she is completing a book manuscript temporarily titled Expose and Punish: Trial by Moving Images in Revolutionary Times. In 2024, she curated the “Machines and Me: A Filmless Festival” screening series, as part of The Work of Self-Assembly in Global Chinese/Asian Media and Art initiative supported by UMD’s Arts for All Program.

Conference Schedule

Friday, February 28, 2025

9:15-9:30
Welcome

9:30-10:20
Mali Wu, Artist, “Art as Social Catalyst: On My Art Journey and the Recent Development on the Taiwan Art Scene”

10:30-11:20
An-yi Pan, Cornell University, “Leftist Art and Literature in Postwar Taiwan”

11:30-12:20
Su-hsing Lin, Tainan National University of the Arts, “The Artistic Relationship Between Taiwan and the United States During the Cold War Period – The Case Study of Ran Inting”

12:30-1:45
Lunch Break

2:00-2:50
Kuo-sheng Lai, National Palace Museum Southern Branch, “Master of Public Relations: Chang Dai-Chien and Taiwan”

3:10-3:50
Belinda Qian He, University of Maryland, “Wildness at Work: Planting Moving Images and Justice in Taiwan”

4:00-4:30
Roundtable

4:45-5:00
Closing Remarks

There will be 10-minute breaks between presentations to allow for entrance/exit. Please feel free to use the breaks between presentations to join as your schedule allows.

Co-Sponsors

College of Arts and Sciences, Arts and Humanities Small Grant
Department of History of Art
Institute for Chinese Studies
Department of East Asian Languages and Literature
Department of Art

If you require accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Allison Buenger at buenger.2@osu.edu. Requests made two weeks before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

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