
"Trust and Trap" -- Heavenly Scorn
by Kpfid Talo + Wang Ting-ting
Journal 2
Meeting an Amazing Art Work in Tainan
Last weekend, I planned a trip to run away from the mudslide of mid-term exams, and the one-and-only destination is Tainan. Tainan is a perfect place for me to relax. First, the city has a lot of famous local cuisines that interest me. Second, there are convenient scooter-sharing services, such as iRent and GoShare, which allow me to travel throughout the urban area in Tainan. Before the trip I’m going to talk about, I recently went to Tainan about three times a month because I took part in a workshop of performing art critics. Having such frequent visits in Tainan, I almost see the city as my second dorm, and I am even more familiar with it than with Chiayi. (Okay, I probably exaggerated it too much…) Anyway, the experience before makes me confident that I can plan the trip nicely.

"Trust and Trap" -- The Trap
by Kpfid Talo + Wang Ting-ting
The first stop of my trip would be definitely the Tainan Art Museum. The museum appeals to me from my first sight of it. Its overall atmosphere and unique themes take my breath every single time. Once there is a new exhibition, I will start looking for the vacancy in my schedule, which is waiting for my filling with a worthy museum visit. One of the exhibitions was about how people in aboriginal tribes in Taiwan and Canada resisted the devouring of modern civilization and survived societally and culturally.

"13 Ways to Dilute Indigeneity" -- No Death Penalty, Exile Only
by Mayaw Biho
There was a work, “No Death Penalty, Exile Only,” which impressed me a lot. It was involved in a set called “13 Ways to Dilute Indigeneity.” The work was composed of four pieces of paintings. The first piece showed a man who killed another man and got caught red-handed. The second piece described that the man had to labor hard to make up for his guilt. The content is quite vague in the third picture. The man was hugged in an old man’s arms, and then he sat with people in a circle. Those people seemed to judge him in a silent way. In the last piece, the man took his bag and left the tribes.
The people in the paintings were colored respectively with red and blue. In my opinion, the colors distinguished two tribes of residents. Perhaps it had some suggestion about how peacefully people can deal with their conflict between different groups. While I was still speculating about the details of the story, the small caption on the corner wrapped up the message of the work: In the past of indigenous history, if a man made a serious mistake, the tribe usually took his possessions or made him labor as punishment. It is rare to sentence one to death. Exile is the harshest punishment. Compared with the death-penalty-promoting comments left under the facebook news post, a sense of irony appeared when the ancient indigenous tribes, often connected with savage image, demonstrated their respect and value to life.

"Trust and Trap" -- The Surviver
by Kpfid Talo + Wang Ting-ting
Actually, besides the work we’ve talked about, there were tons of displayed items firmly catching my eyes and amazing me with their wit. Even if the previously viral exhibition "Ghosts and Hells: The underworld in Asian art" was removed, Tainan Art Museum is really a treasure chest full of inspiration and awe. I heartily recommend you to visit it during your leisure!