“DURA MATER” Solo Exhibition @ Chini Gallery
【鎧甲女神】個展 @ 采泥藝術
2025. 11.08 ~ 2025. 12.07

For my latest solo exhibition at Taipei’s Chini Gallery, I present a series of works created between 2023 and 2025. Rather than following a single theme, this body of work stems from my introspections as a modern woman approaching her mid-thirties. It is a profoundly personal exhibition, yet one I hope others will also find relatable.

In these works, I continue my exploration of European medieval memento mori 死亡象徵, weaving it together with mythology and reimagined archaeological “shell middens,” alongside ornate seashell objects. This extends from my 2024 joint exhibition with Kai-Chun Chiang at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Archeological Resonance 考古混響. For me, art and life are inseparable—I cannot keep stories, interests, or fascinations apart from my practice. Within this body of work, audiences will encounter echoes of antique curiosities, occult motifs, and references to subcultures embedded in complex imagery.

The exhibition’s title, Dura Mater —Latin for “tough mother” and the outermost, hardest layer of the human skull—was inspired by Hailey Campbell’s book All the Living and the Dead. In it, Campbell reflects on mortality through encounters with workers engaged in all aspects of death, from funerary professionals to crime scene cleaners.

Through this lens, I wish to address the complexities of our contemporary, politically turbulent times (seen in works such as Divination and Hope, which grapple with the frightening uncertainty of the future), as well as more intimate concerns (muddy waters?) of womanhood and girlhood (as in In Between Demeter & Persephone). What does it mean today to be a woman in her thirties, particularly as an artist? What unique challenges do female-presenting adults encounter that their male counterparts do not? What subjects are acceptable to bring to the dinner table, and what remains taboo?

My works do not offer direct answers—nor do I yet claim to hold them myself. Instead, I invite viewers to contemplate these questions, to wander through the details of each piece, and to construct their own interpretations from the symbols and visual elements interlaced within.

我在台北采泥畫廊舉辦的最新個展中，展出了 2023 至 2025 年之間所創作的一系列作品。這批作品並未依循單一的主題，而是源自於我身為一名即將邁入三十歲中段的現代女性的內在反思。這是一場極為個人化的展覽，也希望觀者同樣能從中產生共鳴。

延續了對歐洲中世紀「死亡意象」（Memento Mori）的探索，將其與神話、再想像考古學中的「貝塚」，以及裝飾華麗的貝殼物件相互交織，這一系列作品延伸自 2024 年與藝術家江凱群在高雄市立美術館共同舉辦的聯展《考古混響》。對我而言，藝術與生活密不可分——我無法將創作實踐與故事、興趣或迷戀分割開來。在這批作品中，觀眾將感受到結合了古董奇珍、神祕學母題，以及融入的次文化符碼複雜意象的反響。

展覽的標題為《Dura Mater》（拉丁語意為「堅毅的母親」，同時也是指人類顱骨最外層且最堅硬的腦膜），靈感來自海莉·坎貝爾（Hailey Campbell）的著作《死亡專門戶》（All the Living and the Dead）。書中，坎貝爾透過與死亡相關的職業人士接觸—從殯葬工作者到犯罪現場清理員—從而反思死亡的本質。

藉由這樣的視角，我希望觸及當代政治動盪下時代的複雜性（如作品《希望與卜筮》所展現的，對未來不確定性的恐懼與掙扎），以及更為私密的議題，例如在成為女性與女孩間的搖擺不定（如《黛米特與波瑟芬妮之間》）。身為當今三十多歲的女性，尤其是作為藝術家，意味著什麼？在成長為成年個體的過程中，會遭遇哪些女性獨有的挑戰，而男性卻不必面對？哪些議題可以被端上餐桌，而哪些依舊是禁忌？
我的作品並不提供直接的答案——甚至我自己也不敢聲稱已經掌握了這些解答。取而代之的，我想邀請觀者參與這些問題的思考，徜徉於每件作品的細節之中，並從交織其中的符號與視覺元素中建構出屬於他們自己的解讀。

^{VIEW EXHIBITED ARTWORKS 觀賞展出作品系列}
^{CLOSING EVENT: Arachne’s Web Shibari Performance with Noir_Fix

閉幕演出：阿朗克妮之網}

關於「考古混響」

考古揭開過去的歷史，「文化層」記錄人類活動的軌跡。時間遺留下的碎片，拼湊出一個有限的過去；而當代藝術家拾起這些殘件，以藝術構築出一層嶄新的時空。因此，這些考古遺跡不再僅是一記過往，而是橫跨古今的想像見證。

本次《考古混響》由藝術家江凱群與陳絲穎展出各自對於臺灣史前文明的遐想。透過對臺灣新石器時代的研究，採集「國立臺灣史前文化博物館」出土的遺物，如玉器、飾品、貝塚、骨骸等作為創作的靈感。融合自身的生命經驗與美學意識，兩位藝術家將當代藝術與史前遺物交疊，突破歷史的界限，開啟「當代文化層」的感知維度。

江凱群以「臺灣閃玉」為主題的石材馬賽克，譜出一節精彩的古今篇章；陳絲穎則以神秘而寂靜的繪畫作品，創造出富饒的異想世界。兩位藝術家截然不同的藝術語彙，在此刻帶著我們穿越時間的屏障與遠古文明共鳴共響。

About “ARCHEOLOGICAL RESONANCE”

"Archaeology" embodies the past. Its “cultural layer” registers the trajectory of human activities. the fragments of the "cultural layer" to piece together traces of a former civilization. When the artist revitalizes these subjects through artistic creation, they are no longer just symbols of decay. However, they are imaginative testimonies that transcend time, constructing their own universe.

Archeological Resonance, proposed by artists Chiang Kai Chun and Jazz Szu-Ying Chen, showcases their re-imagined prehistoric realm. Through researching Taiwan’s Neolithic period, artists capture the relics excavated by National Museum of Prehistory, such as jade objects, accessories, middens and bones, which serve as their inspirations. By integrating with their personal stories and visual languages, the two artists overlay contemporary arts with prehistoric relics, breaking the boundaries of history and conceiving an alternative dimension of "contemporary cultural layer."

Kai Chun Chiang uses mosaics themed around "Taiwanese jade" to compose a magnificent chapter melding the ancient and modern, while Jazz Szu-Ying Chen creates a surreal world of muse through her mysterious and silent paintings. In this moment, the distinctive artistic languages of the two artists are leading us through the barriers of time, resonating with ancient civilization.