A Study of Tears in Makota’ay
Dimensions variable
Site-specific installation, images, videos, project activities and documents
2018

A Study of Tears in Makota’ay is a project-based multimedia installation work, taking shape as an exhibition in order to give audiences more depth about the experience of the artist residency program for Mipaliw Land Art Festival in the Makota’ay tribe located in Hualien, Taiwan. Along the processes of field work, the tradition of “pakelang” in Pangcah (a name east-coast Amis tribes call themselves) culture in which grief and celebrations are combined as a fishing and feasting ritual. Nowhere Island Journal tries to re-contextualize the original pakelang ritual in a contemporary sense while reflecting on group members’ own identities that are at once foreign yet native to the land.

Nowhere Island Journal

 “Nowhere Island” was a mockery name given to the islands of Taiwan, but its meaning is reversed and transformed as artists embark on a set of journeys to re-recognize their homeland. 

Ying-chia Huang, Deng-huei Kao and Kevin You Singgan hail from Tainan, New Taipei and Taipei City respectively. The three join expertise in history studies, literature, filmmaking and fine arts. They co-founded Nowhere Island Journal in 2017 to develop alternative and transdisciplinary approaches to contemporary art. The experimental artist collective has no fixed members or rules and shapeshifts with each project.

Nowhere Island Journal was awarded the Kuandu Outstanding Art Prize in 2019 and has shown in multiple venues including Waley Art, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and National Center of Photography and Images.