She's going Tai-wa-nese-a

Look Mom!

The puzzle made it up on the container wall today, as well as the very last stars.  And we were blessed with overcast skies and a cool front. 

My proposal summarizes the last step for the exterior, which I completed late in the evening: "Floating on the surface of the star-shaped wounds are the words we say to ourselves that keep us on the surface; that prevent us from spending time with our interior true self.  They are the little excuses that prevent us from finding the place of peace inside.  Our protective covering, now shaped by patterns, wounds, words, and identity-creating debris, merely reflects the exterior world, rather than our interior true self."

 

If you look closely at the picture, you can see a few phrases. 

Kaohsiung is its most colorful at night.  Open-air restaurants line the streets and temples dedicated to various gods are illuminated with candles and artifical lights. 

Night market

Just for a change, I thought you might enjoying seeing some of Kaohsiung.....the night life is a great way to escape the heat.  Just behind my hotel is one of the oldest night markets in the city.

Today I was interviewed and filmed for a commercial for the festival that will appear on the American Institute of Taiwan's website....or something like that. 

The only progress that is visible on the container is the addition of the word "good" to the doors. With artist Yieren's help, I was able to write this word on the doors which is composed of two symbols: girl and boy (later covered in the silver tape). When the doors are open you see either 'girl' or 'boy', depending on what side you are facing. When the doors are closed, 'girl - boy' are placed side by side and the symbols together mean "good". Girl and boy make good home. Beautiful!

Pieces coming together

For the past week, I have left a jigsaw puzzle out every day for anyone passing by to work on. The puzzle is a Thomas Kinkade painting of "home"....a log cabin set in a pastoral landscape.  Tomorrow morning it will be the last object placed on the container wall; and the final star-shaped wounds will be applied.

 The placement of the stars has gone very quickly....instead of being several days behind, I am now several days ahead.  However, it continues to be sunny, which makes work very difficult in the middle part of the day.....and yet the sun goes down and it is DARK by 5:30 pm.  This makes for a shorter work day lately.  That Taiwanese one of the artists lent me has been a blessing.

Dirty, gritty, grimey.....

Early morning unflurling of the plastic film that covered the exposed, glued objects on the container.....wind caused beautiful whiplach shapes worth sharing.  Last night the guard complained that someone might steal the household objects, several delectable children's toys and videos just waiting to be plucked from their plastic sleeves.  So I complied with the filmy covering for the night. 

From my proposal: "Those regular patterns are altered at times by the wounding we experience from others as our true selves are slowly molded and domesticated for this world.  These wounds are necessary; they can even be thought of as beautiful.  However each of us receives and reacts to our wounds slightly differently. Thus the layers of our protective covering evolve in individual ways, giving us our unique personalities." 

This may look like fun, but trust me....it is dirty, gritty, grimey work. It has been sunny for the past two days, which means from 11 in the morning until about 2:30 in the afternoon I am drenched in sweat. The air is actually fairly cool, but the sun has an intensity I can only describe as TROPICAL.

Still shopping every day for supplies....great time to get out of the heat.  And working into the evening......the container is becoming quite beautiful at night.  Will try to get a better shot tomorrow where you can see all the colored reflections in the star-wounds. 

Household Objects

I have been gluing hosehold objects collected in San Antonio and in Kaohsiung to the walls of the container.  The star-shaped wounds will eventually cover them. 

From my proposal: "The protective covering of the shipping container, composed of bands of reflective adhesive tape, includes both a regular repeating pattern and star-shaped wounds, whose placement evolves organically and circumstantially.  The mirror-like finish of the tape constantly reflects you, other people, and the colors of the environment where it is located.  Trapped in the protective covering are the objects of the world that we collect and identify as “home”; the things we believe are building our identity; that we think are making us secure.  These objects are universal to most households around the world, since these very shipping containers are constantly transporting them back and forth across the seas.  The objects cling to the surface of the container and are caught up in the wounds, like debris washed up on a shore."

 

On Friday, the person who will be workin on the container next to mine, New York artist Richard Humann, arrived.  His project is to create a global map that documents where his shipping container has been for the past 11years of its life.  As an historian of ports, I find his concept intriguing.  Wish I had thought of that!  http://2011container.kmfa.gov.tw/home02.aspx?ID=$3001&IDK=2&AP=$3001_SK-^$3001_PN-2^$3001_HISTORY-0

   

Thanksgiving Day

Although Thanksgiving Day is not a holiday in Taiwan, I found a way to celebrate it with Jin and Lea. We went to a marvelous, authentic Taiwanese restaurant called Amy's and had a feast.  Soup, Ma Po tofu, Drunken chicken, Cod with a wonderful cake-thick crumbly crust on top, and bamboo shoot salad. The seasoning of each dish was subtle, delicate and delightful. Yum!

 

 We are posing in front of a wedding carriage, an artifact inside the restaurant. It is the kind they carry the bride in to the groom's family....sometimes a long trip.