War Pigeon

作品賞析

The artist Lee Li-Chung pays attention to topics in modern Taiwanese history. Most of his works feature pigeons, and his works adopt the form of archival documents. His War Pigeons simulates the military’s use of pigeons in the gathering of intelligence. The pigeons were equipped with micro-cameras and released to fly back and forth over Feiyan New Village in Tainan. The pigeons’ perspective is matched with anthropomorphic narration, which tells how such military pigeons were used in the Cold War period, and how the appearance of Feiyan New Village is an encapsulation of Taiwan’s modern history. During World War II, the United States would also use pigeons to collect military intelligence in preparation for bombing Taiwan; Feiyan New Village was the Japanese Army’s radio command post at that time. After the war, it became a military dependent’s village for Air Force personnel. In recent years, the place has been the scene of many conflicts over development versus preservation. By fabricating archival documents, Lee Li-Chung attempts to fill in the gaps of this little-known aspect of Taiwan’s pigeon-racing culture and present the struggle and flow of political and economic forces in history.