The Memo of Formosa Air Battle

作品賞析

Pigeons, with their homing instinct, are also important symbols in artist Lee Li-Chung’s creations; for him they symbolize his inner yearning for family. Using the word “pigeon” as a metaphor for people, he used pigeons as the main figures and created a series of works based on historical events in Taiwan, adding his own imagination with the hope of reversing the negative image of pigeons. This video work, The Memo of Formosa Air Battle, is set in Taiwan in 1944, when it was still ruled by Japan. At that time, the American and Japanese armed forces fought fiercely in the skies above Liujia Peak in Yongkang, Tainan, where the Japanese army’s radio command and communication post was located. Lee Li-Chung simulated a battle above Tainan, imagining a situation in which electronic communications failed to operate and military pigeons were required to go on a mission. He had his own pigeons re-enact this air battle. Through the perspective and narrative of the pigeons, he re-views sky and history to experience the mission and fate of the military pigeons.