Mali Wu is an artist from Taiwan who makes and also curates work that explores ecological issues and doing art projects that collaborate with communities.
Her work By the River, On the River, Of the River, made in 2006, she worked with communities that lived along northern Taiwan’s Danshui River. In Taipei, everyone has heard of the Danshui River, but not many people actually know what’s currently around or in the river. The Danshui River is formed by 4 smaller rivers, and for the project she did river tracing of each river by crossing through Taipei in different boats. The participants examined what the current water level and quality was.
The projec which had a symbolic significance was done in collaboration with the city of Taipei and the county’s community colleges. After the project, each college formed a river preservation alliance, and discussions about the river began to occur.
In 2008, Wu developed her project Taipei Tomorrow As Lake Again, which was part of the 2008 Taipei Biennale. The piece was meant to be a criticism of the high amounts of pesticides that are used at the large international gardening exposition, the Flora Expo, which Taipei hosted that same year and to bring attention to the affect climate change could have on Taipei.
300 years ago, the location of Taipei was swamp and grassland, and the Taipei Basin was a lake. In Wu’s garden installation Taipei Tomorrow as a Lake Again, she wanted to address global warming issues, and visualize what the city would be like if it was to become a lake again. Working with urbanist group, Organisation of Urban Re-s (OURs), Wu planted a mobile kitchen garden on the terrace of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Potatoes, peppermint, and other vegetables and herbs were bordered with up-side-down beverage crates that served as pathways between the garden beds. Exhibition visitors were invited to harvest the garden.
The project also was comprised of an installation and a series of workshops and actions which included Eco-building, Bike Paradise, Farm City and Flood Taipei. These were designed to stimulate discussion and to motivate people to take a new look at Taipei’s urban policy.
Taiwan is a country that imports most of its food, but environment questions are not commonly discussed. With her piece, Mali Wu is proposing that the City of Taipei work to allocate cropland in the city so that in the future the country can provide for itself.
When asked about the role of art in environmental issues Wu says,” I think art stimulates the mind, but I wouldn’t compare an artist to an environmentalist… Environmentalists are focused in making changes; artists, on the other hand, tell the same story with a different medium, they also give the mind an alternative suggestion – this, I think, is the only difference between the two.”(1)
Image Source:
Taipei Biennial
Links/Sources:
Wu Mali at the Taipei Biennial