“初光之曜” | 光源台北 - 2023台灣燈會在台北

Tsai & Yoshikawa present ‘First Light’, their contribution to the 2023 Taiwan Lantern Festival, which welcomes the first full moon of the Lunar New Year.  The lantern-style installation winds its way through the lush trees of Yanji Park, Taipei, blending the modern and the traditional.

Traditional lanterns are made by highly-skilled artisans, using thin strips of bamboo and wires to build complex, three-dimensional frames.  Beautiful, thin fabrics are then stretched around these structures like skins to create decorative objects such as flowers, dragons and other symbolic creatures.  Our artwork is a modern interpretation of these methods.

We use the branches from a group of banyan and maple trees to create our decorative frame.  The 'skin' is then formed by suspending hundreds of light-weight, neoprene elements between the leaves and branches, creating a large-scale, colourful cloud that appears to float in mid-air.

During the day, these organic forms resemble colourful flowers, blossoming on the trees.  At night, the structure of the trees recedes, and the installation transforms into a dazzling, starry sky.

Duration: 05 - 19 February 2023

Location: Yanji Park, Da'an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106

Commissioned by: Taipei City Government

Curator of Beacons of Light Display Zone: Hu’s Art

Photo: Yue-Shiuan Tu, Hu’s Art