Mother Tree stems from the artist’s fieldwork documenting his mother’s hair-washing routine, evolving into an in-depth exploration of familial archaeology and diasporic history. Originating from Singkawang, Indonesia, the artist’s family of six—driven by the mother’s initiative—migrated and settled in Taiwan over thirty years ago. Revolving around the mother, the preliminary research phase of this project traces her journey navigating social marginalization, material scarcity, and the crevices of state institutions to forge a path forward. Serving as a counterpoint to her experience are the recurring “disjunctions” the artist encountered throughout his coming of age: the disjunction between his birth certificate and true name, the disjunction between his nationality and physical belonging, and the disjunction between a spoken identity and one yet to be confessed. These disjunctions manifest as “absence”—missing pages in matrilineal history, the unspeakable amidst intimate relationships, and miswritten blanks in institutional records. They represent not only fissures in a personal biography but also the very embodiment of the immigrant and diasporic experience.

Under the theme of a “theater of absence,” this research-based creative project seeks to transform “absence” into a viewing mechanism that can be experienced. As performers withdraw, the narrative proceeds with images, sounds, light, space, and archival objects. The theater operates autonomously by virtue of a system of absence and phantom-like memories. Through the cyclical structure of performance and exhibition, the audience gradually draws closer to the immigrant’s life story in a continuous process of viewing and returning.

*The artist was invited by the National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) to conduct preliminary research for this project in 2024.