An Experimental Project
in Taiwan
地方剪花活：剪紙合作社
－ 臺灣剪紙的實驗田野
.
Begun in 2016 in Tainan’s salt-field region, the project brings together twenty women and their families. Using paper cutting as a foundation, it explores exchanges across communities and a locally rooted practice in Taiwan.
The lagoons, mangroves, and salt fields stretching north along Tainan’s west coast are part of my childhood. On Sundays, I would come here with my family—looking for soldier crabs, catching mudskippers, and waiting for black-faced spoonbills. In my memory, it is open, quiet, and always filled with bright sunlight.
During the design process, I spent time in libraries, drawn to Japanese and Chinese-language book design from the 1960s to 1980s—modest, simple, and made with materials now gradually disappearing. I often found myself at Shih Chien University’s library and the National Central Library, paging through old books.
In this book, I introduced “old” elements—laid paper, colored paper, kraft paper, and a rough light grey stock, along with familiar visual symbols—allowing the paper-cutting works by the Tainan women to retain their vitality and playfulness within the book.
計畫始於2016年，以臺南鹽分地帶為核心，帶領二十位婦女及其家庭參與。以剪紙為基礎，透過不同社群之間的交流，嘗試建立屬於臺灣的在地剪紙田野。
台南西海岸往北延伸的潟湖、紅樹林與鹽田，小時候的星期天我也常常和家人來這裡：找和尚蟹、抓彈塗魚、等待黑面琵鷺，記憶裡，是空曠、靜謐、陽光總是閃亮。
專案製作過程中，我也被圖書館舊時的日文、中文書的裝幀吸引——樸實、簡單，以及逐漸消失的材料。那時常待在實踐大學的圖書館和國家總圖翻看舊書。
這本書中我刻意放進「舊」的元素：萊尼紙、色紙、牛皮紙與粗面淺灰紙與一些視覺符號，讓臺南阿姨們鮮明的剪紙作品，在書本裡映照其生命力。
client: Jam Wu
editorial Team: Jam Wu, Wang-Han-Fang, Kofu Lin
design: Kuo Yi Chiau, Yi Yi Cheng
2021
editorial Team: Jam Wu, Wang-Han-Fang, Kofu Lin
design: Kuo Yi Chiau, Yi Yi Cheng
2021