ARTIST SERIES: Wu Mali, the “Godmother of Taiwan’s Socially Engaged Art”

Wu Mali at the Kaoshiung Museum of Fine Arts

Taiwan artist and curator, Wu Mali kindly took a break from installing her solo exhibit at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts to chat with me over tea. She’s been called the “godmother of Taiwan’s socially engaged art” by artist and art writer Bo Zheng, and given her extensive amount of socially focused work, I definitely agree! Some of her most famous environmental work includes co-curating the Post-Nature: A Museum as Ecosystem Biennial in 2018 with Francesco Manacorda, and leading the “Art as Environment: A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek” with Bamboo Curtain Studio (Taipei Artist Village director and former associate director of Bamboo Curtain Studio Catherine Lee explains the Plum Tree Creek project in photo below).

Catherine Lee holding the Plum Tree Creek map

Mali prioritizes collaboration and facilitating community engagement in her work. This is particularly evident in the 2 year Plum Tree Creek project which focused on educating and engaging with over 80,000 participants about local water issues. The project included workshops, art and events from over 60 artists, NGOs, schools, and community leaders to help the residents reconnect with the Plum Tree Creek and to drive environmental stewardship and action. While Plum Tree Creek as a full-time project ended in 2012, the community and Plum Tree Creek members still meet at the creek annually. Mali isn’t sure that the program was a “success” but I think she is being modest. After the project ended, the government started to separate the sewage water so that it was no longer flowing into Plum Tree Creek.

It was such an honor to spend a few hours chatting with Wu Mali and Catherine Lee (earlier in the week). Scroll down to see my sketchbook/notes from the interview.

*I often hesitate to share my interview notes with you all because I *shocker* struggle to spell when I’m furiously scribbling down notes so you’ll notice many typos (ex. Biennial not bienial) and that’s just part of the fun 🙃