2024 Austronesian International Art Award, Taitung Art Museum, Taitung 繚繞獸首—祭壇》 # *The Lingering Faces: Altar / Mutual Glance* **複合媒材、錄像裝置｜100 × 50 × 25 cm** **Mixed Media and Video Installation | 100 × 50 × 25 cm** 本創作始於幼年在射馬干（Kasavakan）部落參與死亡祭儀的生命經驗。此後多年反覆出現「與獸奔馳」的夢境，與成年後參與大獵祭（Mangayaw）及家族降巫儀式的經驗彼此疊合，也使藝術家重新理解「夢」在射馬干祭儀文化中，作為人與祖靈、自然及未知生命之間跨界溝通的重要媒介。 This work originates from the artist’s childhood experience of participating in funerary rituals in the Kasavakan community. In the years that followed, recurring dreams of “running alongside beasts” gradually intertwined with his later experiences of Mangayaw—the Great Hunting Ritual—and spirit-medium rituals within his family. Through these overlapping experiences, the artist came to reconsider the role of dreams within Kasavakan ritual culture: not simply as private visions, but as a vital medium of communication across boundaries, connecting humans with ancestral spirits, nature, and unknown forms of life. 在大獵祭的宇宙觀中，死亡並非生命的終止，而是一種生命關係的轉化與交換。獵物經由儀式與食用進入人的身體，使人與非人（non-human）的生命彼此交融，形成相互依存的循環。儀式因此不只是紀念或象徵，而是一種與萬物靈魂協商、回應與重新建立關係的實踐。 Within the cosmology of Mangayaw, death does not signify the end of life, but rather a transformation and exchange of relations between living beings. Through ritual and consumption, the hunted animal enters the human body, allowing human and non-human lives to merge within a cycle of mutual dependence. Ritual, therefore, is more than an act of remembrance or symbolic representation; it becomes a practice of negotiation, response, and the continual rebuilding of relationships with the spirits of other beings. 歷經殖民歷史與外來文化的影響，射馬干對自然、祖靈與未知世界的崇拜與溝通，也逐漸發展出多樣而混合的形式。藝術家透過觀看祭儀文化不斷變動、重組的軌跡，重新思考自身混血身分的位置：文化並非純粹而靜止的傳承，而是在不同歷史、信仰與生命經驗之間持續生成。 Through histories of colonisation and encounters with external cultures, Kasavakan practices of reverence for and communication with nature, ancestral spirits, and unseen worlds have gradually evolved into diverse and hybrid forms. By tracing how ritual culture continually shifts and reconfigures itself, the artist also reflects upon his own position as a person of mixed heritage. Culture, in this sense, is neither pure nor static inheritance, but something continually produced and transformed through the intersections of different histories, beliefs, and lived experiences. 作品以「頭像」作為解構與重組的媒介，揉合人、動植物及圖騰符號，創造一個介於祭壇、生命體與未知存在之間的當代泛靈場域。作為《祭壇》系列的核心，裝置與錄像如同一扇通往彼岸的窗口。藝術家從巫覡、夢境與托夢經驗出發，以「戴上獸首、捨棄人形」的儀式性身體行動，暫時鬆動人與非人的界線，使身體重新進入自然的關係之中。 The work employs the “head” as a medium for deconstruction and reassembly, merging human, animal, botanical, and totemic elements to create a contemporary animistic space suspended between altar, living organism, and unknown presence. At the core of the *Altar* series, the installation and moving image function as a window opening towards another realm. Drawing upon experiences of shamanic practice, dreams, and dream visitations, the artist performs a ritualised bodily act of “wearing the head of the beast and relinquishing the human form.” Through this gesture, the boundary between human and non-human is temporarily loosened, allowing the body to re-enter a relational field with the natural world. 錄像中的行走與舞動，同時討論 Kasavakan 從山林一路抵達河流盡頭的送靈與道別儀式。獸首因而不只是面具，也成為一個過渡中的身體——在人與獸、生者與亡者、現實與夢境之間往返，試圖重新想像南島文化在多元文化交會之下，如何延續、變形，並產生新的生命形式。 The walking and bodily movements within the video also engage with Kasavakan rituals of farewell and guiding the spirits of the deceased, tracing a passage from the mountains and forests towards the end of the river. The beast-head therefore becomes more than a mask: it forms a transitional body moving between human and animal, the living and the dead, reality and dream. Through this liminal figure, the work seeks to reimagine how Austronesian cultural worlds might endure, transform, and generate new forms of life amid encounters between multiple cultures.