TAMA MON 22

2021-2025 Co-researcher and print and screen printing designer in the TAMA MON 22 project (Tama Art University Monyo Studies Project), on the documentation and study of Asian and Japanese ornaments, having collaborated on the research about Taiwan. For this project, visited Taiwanese indigenous tribes and designed and screen-printed three original textile prints that were later exhibited in Taiwan and in Japan. Also, facilitated the collaboration between Tama Art University and Fu Jen Catholic University, serving as an academic liaison between them Also gave lectures/artist talks in Taiwan and in Japan, about his work and creative process during his stay in Japan (2006-2013) and in Taiwan (since 2013). The TAMA MON 22 project was and continues to be funded by several renowned Japanese institutions: JSPS Kakenhi, Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation, and Tama Art University Research Grant.

Link: https://www.tamabi.ac.jp/research/tamamon22/

Artist Talk for undergraduate students at Tama Art University, June 2025

Artist Talk for Masters students at Tama Art University, June 2025

TAMA MON 22 Project exhibition at Fu Jen Catholic University, March 2025

Project joint collaboration between Taiwan and Japan, 2025

Research trip to Hualien (Taiwan) to visit Amis tribes and native festivals, July 2023

Research trip to Hualien (Taiwan), visiting archeological museums and artist studios

Pattern "Preserved Culture" (2025), screen printing on cotton with reactive dyes, 4 colors, 104x500cm.

This pattern suggests the idea of broken pieces put together, inspired by cultural artifacts from the Mat'ai/Amis tribe. After visiting the Archeological Museum in Hualien, displays of partially reconstructed ancient vases gave me the main idea for this pattern.

Later on this pattern made me reflect about Taiwan’s political history, about the occupations of the Japanese colonialism and the Chinese nationalism. It made me think that this pattern may reflect the rebuilding of what power struggles once tore apart by persecution and censorship:

- traditional ways of life

- cultural identities

- native languages, including Minnan and Hakka

- personal freedoms.

Currently there are many attempts at preserving and restoring these identities, although in an incomplete way due to already lost traditions, from:

- governmental cultural initiatives

- anthropological studies

- museums

Pattern "Native Patterns", screen printing on cotton with reactive dyes, 3 colors, 104x500cm.

Each tribe has their own patterns and each native animal has their own texture. Both native tribes and native animals live in a symbiotic relation with Nature. In this pattern I bring together the idea that native communities and native animals have their own characteristic cultural or biological traits that reflect their ways of living.

Pattern "Tight-Knit Communities", screen printing on cotton with reactive dyes, 1 color, 104x500cm.

Native societies are tight-knit communities that share homogeneous traditions and worldviews. They are also tight-knitted to Nature and its creatures, both animate and inanimate, which are imbued of magical and symbolical meanings.

The visual inspiration for this pattern was the aesthetic configuration of the woodcarving figures and animals of the Matai people, who belong to the Amis tribe. It made me think of German expressionism and Brazilian naive woodcut prints, suggesting freely drawing human figures without thinking, exploring its naiveness.

Also, many native dances in Taiwan share similar patterns of interlaced arms and clasping hands, which ties the pattern with the idea of a seamless integration between native peoples and Nature.

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