Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

to Taiwan after World War I I . In the work here are a few excerpts from the writing of Ran Meisu, whose father was executed at the incident, expressing female experiences of the massacre. There is a video projection in the installation with an image of waves rushing towards rock. The roaring sound of waves can be heard . The text is inscribed on sandblasted glass sheets hanging on the two sides of the video projection . The text on the right wall states : 'His/tory has been revised -the rioter may become the hero. How about her story?' And the text on the left wall : 'EPITAPH She washed the dead bodywith tears. After the funeral was over and all the relatives had gone She finally burst out crying: God , I'm scared! God, I'm scared ! She burned up everything and never uttered a word about it or dressed up ever since. She cleaned herself up and sat at home, waiting for the moment of life and death . She, being raped and feeling ashamed left the kids and ran away. She, doing several jobs for living, has six ch ildren aged from new-born to ten years old . She's always crying, but only in the dark. Fear is with her everywhere like a shadow. She, cries her life away. She, is 'women' in plural form . Her sorrow has always been ours.' This work expresses condolence to the female victims of the 228 incident, and the respect for Mrs. Ran's efforts to record the history from a perspective based on her own experience as a relic (especially female) of the tragedy. And in fact, it places great emphasis upon the link between women and history. The Stories of Women from Hsin-Chuang mainly focuses on those females of Hsin-Chuang in the labour force. Hsin-Chuang was once a significant town, filled with textile mills. I recorded stories by interviewing some of the female workers . This revealed a whole set of problems based on women, labour and the town . The space of the installation was surrounded by fabric, which embroidered the content of the interview. There was also a video projection in the space with a sewing machine image and the oppressive sound of the machine. The text on the video was an excerpt from the interview: · 'I first came to work at textile plants in my teens. Taoyuan, Hsin-Chuang, and Shulin contained my footprints. As it was an exhausting job, I prayed not to marry one whose profession was the same as mine. I got married . Given my husband's poor income, we nevertheless managed a garment factory. Suddenly those good old days in textiles were gone. I ended up divorcing my husband. Children are under his custody and he still owns the factory. As for me, 20 years now past I desperately need to be away from Hsin-Chuang where I have lived for so long. There is none of the good feel ing remaining . The very truth I have ever learned is that my whole life comes at the price of time and youth . I lost everyth ing in the end'. Formosa club - the magic power of Taiwan's fortune was presented at the Taipei Biennia l in 1 998. The piece elaborated the public discourse in favour of the abol ition of legal brothels; helping put the relationsh ips among women, nation, and the economy in 49