Aluaiy Kaumakan’s (b. 1971) practice is rooted in the heritage of the Paiwan Nation and the Paridrayan Community of southern Taiwan, drawing from her role as an Indigenous woman responding to contemporary issues.
Employing traditional handicrafts, she intertwines the life memories of tribal nobility to create space for the resurgence of Indigenous Taiwanese culture and its legacy in art, ecology and cultural politics. Kaumakan creates sculptures and installations using cotton, copper, silk and glass beads. Using a traditional Paiwan weaving technique known as lemikalik, she creates forms with a distinctly organic or vegetal presence.
In the making of her Helsinki Biennial artwork, Kaumakan returned to her ancestral village – hit by a violent typhoon in 2009 – and sought to reconnect members of her displaced community through a creative, communal process of reactivating and transforming old traditions.
Artwork location: HAM Helsinki Art Museum
Photo: Wei-Lun, LU