Zuozhen
7 artworks・5 spots
ZZ-1霓土Space
The Path of Inspiration
WU Chi-zeng
吳其錚
Through daily runs exploring the undulating terrain of Zuozhen, the artist gathers found roadside objects and sparks of inspiration, shaping them with local clay and firing them into finished pieces. Medium: Wild Zuozhen clay (fired at 1100°C), found objects
About the Artist
Working with clay at his core, Wu crafts tactile ceramic sculptures rich in color and texture by blending life observations with imagination. A master storyteller through clay, he creates whimsical creatures and hollow figures, imaginative spaces that store emotions inside and out. Some works stem from local folk legend, while others emerge from spontaneous shapes. He has also developed mobile, fire-breathing wood kilns, performing across Taiwan by fusing sound and performance art. His ongoing resident pottery projects gather local soil to absorb regional essence, connecting deeply with the land to produce evocative sculptures infused with the subtle textures of life.
ZZ-2土農工商行
Zuozhen Municipal Guitan Terraced Arena and Five Farm Fighters
CHEN Wei-hsuan
陳瑋軒
"I kept asking myself: what should a wood-firing pit look like in Zuozhen? Tucked into the low-elevation hills, Zuozhen's scattered settlements often rest on alluvial terrace steps along the outer banks of river meanders. As people developed villages and farmland across these stepped terraces, I wanted to expand my outdoor firing works within a terrace-arena pit. Beneath agricultural plastic sheeting lies a combat arena—I've always felt that farmland hosts staged gladiatorial performances. So I placed five 'farm fighters' around the Zuozhen Municipal Guitan Terraced Arena. A pair of fighters holding fruit-thinning poles decide at will which fruit becomes a precious gem and which falls as fertilizer. Another pair holding chemical spray hoses determine whether the tank holds fertilizer or pesticide, deciding life and death with the point of a finger. Standing on a higher terrace is a fighter draped in a Crested Serpent Eagle cloak, holding coffee milk, pain relievers, sour plum, arrowroot, and mineral water. When the eagle calls, it signals that the sun is hot enough to take a break, acting as a higher entity that dictates the schedule of labor. Yet the arena and its fighters continuously ask: above these terraces, is there an even higher terrace waiting?"
Pieces
- Zuozhen Municipal Guitan Terraced Arena
- Zuozhen Municipal Guitan Terraced Arena
- Pesticide-Dosing Tube Farm Fighter: Lefty-Left
- Farm Tool Farm Fighter: Shorty
- Farm Tool Farm Fighter: Long-Legged
- Farm Time Management Crested Serpent Eagle
About the Artist
A barefoot, clay-dusted craftsman who previously worked in community building and film art direction. Creating ceramics through intense physical labor, he translates the living earth, the joy and sorrow of farm labor, the pride of craftsmanship, and reflections on social justice into raw, satirical ceramic sculptures.
ZZ-3公舘社區發展協會
Layers of Oceans in the Foothills
Ting Ting (CHEN Yi-ting)
聽聽（陳憶婷）
Artist: Ting Ting | CHEN Yi-Ting About the Artist: Drawn to beauty, handcrafts, and textiles, Ting Ting uses her craft to record Taiwan’s rich landscapes of endless mountains and surrounding seas. Through layered fabrics, she invites viewers to step deeper into their native land and embrace nature. About the Work: "Having lived by the Taitung coast for years, entering the low-elevation hills of Tainan felt unfamiliar at first. Walking along the ridgelines, I caught myself instinctively searching for that blue horizon. Descending to the stones along the stream beds, I saw that every rock carried water-carved memories. Venturing deeper, towering eroded cliffs appeared. Within those stacked layers, I discovered ancient ocean traces. The longing I thought I had to seek outward revealed itself during an inward journey, igniting my imagination that perhaps we were all once part of these layered depths beneath the hills." Medium: Mixed fibers
Pieces
- Layers of Oceans in the Foothills I
- Layers of Oceans in the Foothills II
- Daytime at Xiaoyushan
- Nighttime at Xiaoyushan
- As It Flows Down
- Secrets within the Stones
- Microcosmos in Every Layer
About the Artist
Drawn to beauty, handcrafts, and textiles, Ting Ting uses her craft to record Taiwan’s rich landscapes of endless mountains and surrounding seas. Through layered fabrics, she invites viewers to step deeper into their native land and embrace nature. About the Work: "Having lived by the Taitung coast for years, entering the low-elevation hills of Tainan felt unfamiliar at first. Walking along the ridgelines, I caught myself instinctively searching for that blue horizon. Descending to the stones along the stream beds, I saw that every rock carried water-carved memories. Venturing deeper, towering eroded cliffs appeared. Within those stacked layers, I discovered ancient ocean traces. The longing I thought I had to seek outward revealed itself during an inward journey, igniting my imagination that perhaps we were all once part of these layered depths beneath the hills."
ZZ-4左鎮老街
Earth-Born, Co-Created
STUST USR—Zuozhen Mountain Life Project 2.0
南臺科大USR左曜山生計畫
Supported by STUST's USR Project "Zuozhen Mountain Life — Creative Living Value-Added Project 2.0" and using the "Exhibition Space Design" course as a practical platform, students were guided into Zuozhen settlements to extend classroom learning into real public spaces through fieldwork, local proposals, mentor guidance, and co-creation with residents. All six artworks take Zuozhen’s landscape, geology, culture, ecology, and daily life as creative departure points, responding to the 2026 Mattauw Earth Triennial’s curatorial theme "Stratigraphic Textures." Drawing inspiration from chalk badlands, the Cailiao River basin, foothill ecology, fossil culture, bamboo craftsmanship, and local memories, students worked alongside bamboo artisans, local workers, and community members. The resulting works serve as vessels for local knowledge, cultural memory, and public participation. "Earth-Born" signifies that creation originates from and responds to the land; "Co-Created" symbolizes a collaborative process involving residents, students, communities, and art. Each piece carries traces of shared discussion, making, and living, demonstrating the USR spirit: "Starting from the local, learning with the local, creating for the local." When art enters settlements, artworks become vital links connecting people, land, and culture. We invite visitors stepping into Zuozhen to read the unfolding stories of this land within its layered landscape textures.
Pieces
- Sprouting from Withered
- Wood/Realm of the Watershed
- The Fulcrum of Time
- Altimetric Badland Gate
- Fossils of Beyond Time
- Traces in the Foothills
About the Artist
Led by Professor Lai Meng-ling from the Department of Visual Communication Design at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (STUST), this exhibition was executed alongside students, connecting local professional mentors, community organizations, cultural workers, and residents. Through field investigations, local proposals, professional collaborations, and community co-creation, the team transformed Zuozhen’s landscape, ecology, crafts, and living memories into public art, taking coursework into local life while making art a medium connecting campuses, communities, and cultural memory.
ZZ-4-1左鎮老街
Badland Cajón Stool
左鎮國中老師─翁君菱、顏以婷、許秀如
Under STUST's USR (University Social Responsibility) project, students from STUST collaborated with students from Zuozhen Junior High School to worked together to craft a piece that serves both as a percussion instrument and a resting seat for the public. Combining woodworking, bamboo art, and rattan weaving, it incorporates elements such as the layered badland mountain forms and local cultural motifs. The resulting "Badland Cajón Stool”, which is both practical and interactive, will be exhibited in the Zuozhen settlement.
About the Artist
- 左鎮國中學生─車○諺、嚴○捷、謝○宸、余○德、
- 許○俽、曾○茹、莊○昕、林○濬、林○雪、葉○○
- 南臺科大老師─劉大琦、賴孟玲
- 協力教師─李芝熒
- 南臺科大USR助教─買美茹、吳沛臻、吳靜瑜、傅宣瑄
- 南臺科大學生助教─高睿祥、曾宥動
ZZ-5左鎮圖書館
Zuozhen Youth-Elder Co-Creation: Foothill Memories and Stratigraphic Landscapes
Zuozhen Community x STUST x TingTing
左中社區×南臺科大×聽聽
Starting from the foothill memory stories of Zuozhen's elders, curatorial fieldwork photos served as conversation starters, guiding elders to select stratigraphic landscapes of their lived experiences in Zuozhen. Students from STUST's USR project stationed in Zuozhen listened to these stories, compiled short texts, and drew 11 memory-rich sketches. Guided by artist TingTing's design process for landscape fabric art, carefully selected textiles were woven together with old fabrics collected by the elders. Through shared hands-on labor, from paper patterning and fabric selection to cutting and collage, youth and elders collaborated to present unforgotten memory landscapes of living within Zuozhen’s strata.
About the Artist
左中社區─冬文明、王林樟、簡淑珍、卓玉支邑、陳順得、楊桂英、林蔡春惠、林陳春枝、郭簡金桃 、陳黃雪琴、李金枝、許嚴金盆、林黃美孟南臺科大─劉子嫙、傅宣瑄、劉紫筠、曾巧昀、周殷慶、魏慈恩、林珍如、邱鈺婷、魏上桁、曾冠誠藝術家─聽聽協力教師─買香瑜、賴孟玲、徐育霓協力助教─買美茹
ZZ-6左鎮老街
This Light Born Within the Light Before
KAO Jun-honn
高俊宏
Spanning from colonial history to the contemporary era, this work revolves around modes of seeing—the surveyor's gaze, the painter's observation, the mirror's reflection, and the kin's watchful eye. These intersecting perspectives weave contrasting histories that borrow from and dispossess one another.
About the Artist
Born in Taiwan in 1973, Kao graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts in 1998 and earned his Ph.D. from Tainan National University of the Arts in 2017. He is currently an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art at National Kaohsiung Normal University. Working primarily in project-based art, body performance, video, and non-fiction writing, his work explores history, space, biopolitics, neoliberalism, East Asia, and Indigenous issues. He has held solo and group exhibitions worldwide since 1995 and completed residencies in Hong Kong, France, the UK, and Green Island. A multi-time nominee and winner of the Taishin Arts Award, his published books include Bubble Love, The Home Project, The Highway Project, Three Mirrors of Archipelago Art, and Llyung Topa: In Search of the Defense Lines Against Savages and Survivors of the Topa Settlement Massacre, winning the Golden Tripod Award and the Openbook Best Book Award.
- 共同參展─不正常三角點研究小隊（吳語涵、沈肱泓、林淑文、林靈恩、洪庭馥、范珍瑜、
- 高巧玲、張艾倫、陳盈利、楊淯緹、蔡蕥竹、譚姿伶、蘇育宣）
2026.9.5 – 12.6 | Tainan
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