Artwork Appreciation
Artist Tseng Yueh-Yun uses photography to record life and express views and opinions on the earth’s environment, social atmosphere, and other phenomena. Her Christmas Tree at Seaside was shot at the estuary of Agongdian Creek in Kaohsiung in 2019. All kinds of trash are stuck in the trees’ exposed roots. Tseng Yueh-Yun was surprised at this situation, so she thought about recreating this phenomenon in a dramatic way. She sorted out the trash on the coast and placed it among the roots underground, so that they begin to appear like Christmas trees, implying that there are beautiful living things above ground, while below ground there is all the trash, comprised of things that people no longer want—the products of human consumption. She hopes to awaken people’s consciousness and make them think about whether they have unintentionally harmed this land and destroyed its natural ecology.