Artwork Appreciation
The photographer, Yang Shun-Fa, who has surveyed Taiwan’s coast for a long time, observed that in a group of dogs, there is always a leader that will bravely cross a stretch of water first, explore sandbars, and lead its companions to move forward. Moved by such scenes, he developed his “Taiwan TO GO” series and used it to ponder Taiwan’s maritime culture. The small grassy islet in this photo is shaped like Taiwan. The three wading dogs are vigilant and watch one another. Like the immigrants who crossed the sea to Taiwan in the past, they have the tenacity to move forward into the unknown despite the difficulty. Using a telephoto lens, Yang took hundreds of photos of the same scene and pieced them together digitally to present the theme. He was inspired by a work by Jinnshyan Lee (1957-2019) titled Taiwan TO GO, which puns on the phrase “to go” and tugou, which refers to Taiwan’s distinctive local dog breed. In this way, he pays tribute to an earlier artist and asks a question about Taiwan’s future direction.