MoNTUE 北師美術館 作夢計畫 Dreamin’ MoNTUE
嗨歌三百首 masingkiay Concept
"Grandma, can you take me with you to weed the fields?” "Weeding is for simpletons like me. Why do you want to go?" I still went to the paddy fields with my grandmother. When she was holding a sickle in one hand and grabbing a handful of barnyard grass in the other, she would mutter all sorts of things to heed when hoeing and weeding the fields—from what parts of barnyard grass to remove to how much to leave on the ground, from where to dispose the cut grass to the angle and direction of the cuts for different patches of the field. Then she would, perhaps unconsciously, begin to tell stories of the field's past—how she would plant and harvest the various kinds of crops, and how climate shifts affect their growth. Later, she would begin to talk about how each crop attracts different insects, rats, snakes and birds, and how planting different crops every year and the alternating seasons have affected our family life. The moment when my grandma stepped onto a paddy field, wielding a sickle in her hand, she was embodying the coexistence of the present and the past.
Having had the chance to create a series of performances centered around indigenous heritage, I am more convinced than ever that aborigines have an innate predisposition toward performance which enables us to channel a natural flux of energy running without boundaries. This inherent quality is sometimes viewed and observed by people as something special, but to us, this is our purest and most natural way of sharing. This present performance departs from the stereotypical indigenous symbols, totems, decorative accessories, music and dance, and rituals. We want to recreate an authentic aboriginal get-together in the museum, where people are welcome to visit our "home" to wine and dine with us—enjoy drinking water,