Chiou Jong Jiun

2003

Well

POST WINGS

The woodcut artist Chiu Chung-chun draws from the Hakka vernacular of life passed down from his mother. These words lack grandiloquent rhetoric and instead arise from wisdom rooted in the land, labor, food, and everyday experiences. Bamboo shoots, betel nuts, fruits, and plants are not merely ordinary objects in the words of the elders; they become vessels for humor, metaphor, and life philosophy.

The artist transforms these memories into a rough and direct language of printmaking, preserving the knife marks, tactile sensations, and the straightforwardness of folk writing, intentionally avoiding embellishment and the pursuit of a refined civility. The works carry a "terrestrial" quality unique to the Taiwanese people—not crudeness, but rather a vital texture of life that is closely connected to the land.

It embodies a resilience that knows how to digest life's challenges with a joke, to survive and adapt amidst limited resources, and to continue growing. The land may be tough, but life is interesting. This simplicity, humor, and tenacity truly reflect the spirit of island life.

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