Rahic Talif

Rahic Talif (1962), an Amis artist from Taiwan, is iconic in Taiwan’s contemporary Indigenous art circle. His specialties include wood carving, land art, and performance art.
==Life==
Rahic Talif was born in 1962 in the Amis community of Makotaay in Fengbin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. His original Mandarin name was Liu Chung-hsing but was later changed to Liu Yi-hsing. At the age of 19 he began to work as a seafarer and then later moved to Taipei to study interior design on his own. In 1991, he traveled to Japan and was moved by how well the Japanese culture had been preserved, after which he returned to his home community of Makotaay. He embarked on field research there, learning traditional songs and dance from the elderly and collecting orally transmitted stories. He would often wander the community, collecting wood from old dismantled homes, with which he began carving.
His first series of sculpted art was a set of chairs that represented significant people, matters, and objects in his community. The idea came from the derivative words “kamaro'an” (“reside”) and “maro'an” (“sit” or “reside”) in the Amis language.[3] The series’ exhibition in 1993 prompted a lot of discussion as it was quite different from the stereotypical ideas of Indigenous wood carving. His simplified lines express his thoughts in a more abstract way.
Beginning in 1995, art critics expressed doubt in his ability for realism, so he became caught between abstract and realist art, creating both the abstract Traditional Men’s Meeting House and the realist pieces Elder and Grandfather.
In 2000, he won an award from the Asian Cultural Council, which brought him to the US to study, in turn leading to an exhibition in New York the following year. The exhibition caused him to reflect on the creative nature of Indigenous art. He started looking for a way to coordinate abstract art and traditional Indigenous spirit, which was followed by the creation of two series: The Dance of Standing and Incomplete, through which he integrated crafts, myths, and stories from his home community into fishing-net weaving and rattan weaving to create representations of different aspects. In this way, he directed people of the Indigenous community in exploring their shared plight.
In 2006, he published a collection of prose in both Amis and Mandarin entitled Turbid. In it, he describes his desire and search for his community’s traditional culture and memories.
He started work on the Action Project for Typhoon in 2008, incorporating issues important to mainstream society. The project consisted of collecting 6,000 lost shoes from the beaches of Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia and combining them with driftwood into an installation to express the different ways people view typhoons and the environment, comparing the angles taken by traditional and contemporary mindsets, and by Austronesian people and mainstream society. The project took place from 2008 to 2013, and the resulting exhibition prompted much discussion.
Beginning in 2014, with the Pacific Ocean as his catalyst, he started the project The Space of Fifty Steps, the fruits of which he exhibited in Taipei, Taichung, and Taitung. It is a record of a joint effort at creation by himself and others in his community. It discusses the area between the Makotaay community and the beach, which used to be a buffer zone and place of exchange between the locals and the natural environment. With the development of modern society, changes have taken place in the natural environment and the community (including the deterioration of the latter’s culture).
==Style==
Rahic holds the collection of objects as the core of his artistic creation. He specializes at creating art with driftwood and litter from the sea, incorporating the traditional Makotaay crafts of fishing-net weaving and rattan weaving in creating installations and land art.
His style is mainly related to Makotaay and can be generally divided into three phases: From 1991 to 2000, he focused on the community’s orally transmitted stories and traditional customs. In 2000, he started being concerned with life in the community and the plight of its people, inviting locals to participate in his art and explore their shared plight.
With the initiation of Action Project for Typhoon in 2008, his subject of focus turned to the sea and islands, especially their relation to changes in the environment. He started using lost sandals and waste rebar he found at the beach in making art with the help of people from the community. His 2018 The Marine Museum of Art/Indifference is a piece of collected driftwood and found objects built into a cave of sorts. He also made a map of Taiwan’s Highway 11, imagery of fish, windows, and imagery of lilies out of found construction rebar and fishing nets.
Category:1962 births
Category:Taiwanese people
Category:Installation art
Category:Sculptors