Chang Yoong Chia

These workshops were conducted in collaboration with Teoh Ming Wah during our joint artist residency in Hsing Kang, Taiwan; organized by 2007 Art as Environment in the Tropics of Cancer. (2007 北回歸線環境藝術行動).

During these workshops the residents of Hsing Kang embroidered portraits of deceased citizens of Hsing Kang, or their friends, relatives or pets that had passed away. These embroideries were then sewn together to form a quilt (Quilt of Remembrance 紀念被單) and exhibited at a display hall owned by the Hsing Kang Foundation of Culture And Education.

We conducted 7 workshops through the course of our month-long residency. The participants ranged from junior high school students to the elderly. The quilt measured over 3 metres both in height and width. There are 117 embroidered portraits on the quilt.

Quilt of Remembrance is now the provenance of Hsing Kang Foundation of Culture And Education.

Slide presentation at Hsing Kang Foundation of Culture & Education

The purpose of the presentation was to describe to the people about Quilt of the Dead and to present our proposal of making a similar quilt with the Hsing Kang people.

Hsing Kang Old Photos

We chanced upon a book of old photographs of Hsing Kang. We decided to use some of these photos for our qulit. Our original intention was for the residents to bring photos of departed loved ones to embroidered but was, initially, met with resistance. In many chinese societies, the subject of death is still very much a taboo.

Later, however, many participants did bring the photographs we wanted.

From Photo to Embroidery Ring

We asked the partipants of our workshop to bring their photographs one day prior to workshop so that we could transfer the images onto cloth for them.
First, we take a picture of the original photograph, then download it into the computer and resize the image using Adobe Photoshop, print out the new images. Using a light box, we trace the outlines of the portrait with a pen onto a piece of cloth.

#1 Workshop - Senior citizens.

#2 Workshop - Senior High School Students.

#4 Workshop - Adults (Volunteers of Hsing Kang Foundation of Culture and Education.)

#5 Workshop - Adults. This workshop was initiated by some of the #4 Workshop's participants who joined the second time and called up their friends to articipate.)

#7 Workshop - Junior High School Students. This workshop was initiated by a participant from #4 Workshop who is a teacher.

Some of the participants and their embroideries.

Sewing the embroideries together.

The Completed Quilt

This residency program is supported by the ANA "Arts Network Asia (www.artsnetworkasia.org), a group of independent artists, cultural Workers and arts activists primarily from Southeast Asia that encourages collaboration initiated or sited in Asia and carried out together with Asian artists.