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‘It is your family’s journey, too’
Artist Yu-Wen Wu discusses ‘Walking to Taipei,’ a recent Museums acquisition, and how immigration, life experiences inspire her work
Photos by Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
Yu-Wen Wu was shocked to learn how much plane tickets to Taiwan cost when she wanted to visit her sick grandmother in 2010.
She started to brainstorm options. “I decided I could walk to Taipei,” the artist told a crowded room at the Harvard Art Museums on Feb. 21. “I typed it into the Google Maps and asked for walking instructions to Taipei from Boston. What it gave me was a set of instructions, 2,052 instructional steps.”
The product of that thought experiment? A 25-foot handscroll with Wu’s Google Maps directions cut and pasted in order, a route for a trek of 11,749 miles over an estimated 155 days and five hours, including a 52-day (and one hour) kayak voyage across the Pacific Ocean.
Wu joined Sarah Laursen, the Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art, last month to discuss the Museums’ recent acquisition of “Walking to Taipei,” along with some other notable works by Wu.
“Walking to Taipei” is being displayed in segments rolled out every three weeks by museum staff. The artist says the piece explores her relationship to her heritage and the disconnection of assimilation.
“This work was a journey for me, an emotional journey of longing for home and my grandmother, who was very dear to me,” she said. “I felt as if it were a gift bestowed on me from cyberspace.”
Wu and her family’s immigration story began when her father moved to the U.S. from Taiwan after the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Wu arrived years later at 7, along with her mother and brother.
“Walking to Taipei” was not an easy project.
“The final version of ‘Walking to Taipei’ took nearly 10 years to complete. I moved my studio twice during that time and often needed to put it aside to work on other projects,” she said.
Printed on two colors of mulberry paper and glued to semitransparent Dura-Lar film, Wu said the work plays on mixing tradition with modernity.
“It provides a beautiful juxtaposition,” she said.
Other work by Wu can be found on campus. “Terrain,” a 30-foot, laser-cut aluminum mural resembling a Song dynasty landscape painting is on permanent display at Harvard Business School. The work mixes Eastern style with Western motifs (one of the mountain ranges depicts 100 years of trends for the S&P 500.)
Down the road at Tufts, another commissioned work, “The Poetry of Reason” hangs in the Joyce Cummings Center. “The Poetry of Reason” is more than two stories high and comprised of about 30 disks that have “fundamental pieces of knowledge across disciplines,” a work that combines Wu’s artistic sensibilities with her background in science.
Wu, who studied the sciences as an undergraduate at Brown, first moved to Boston in 1981 to work as a research assistant in the lab of Nobel Prize-winning neurophysiologist David H. Hubel, studying the structure and function of the visual cortex.
“David Hubel was an amazing mentor because he really believed that scientists could benefit greatly from cultivating their artistic interests, which ultimately encouraged the multidisciplinary nature of my artistic practice,” Wu said.
She worked with Tufts’ computer science department to create “Poetry” and hopes it can continue to inspire discovery.
“I believe public artwork is strongest when it has the possibility of new iteration allowing it to stand as a living archive,” she said.
Yu-Wen Wu
“ I believe public artwork is strongest when it has the possibility of new iteration allowing it to stand as a living archive.”
Other work by Wu that plays on the idea of iteration includes “Lantern stories,” a project commissioned by the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy in 2020. The work is made up of 31 lanterns illuminating Chinatown history that hung in Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park on the Greenway near Chinatown in 2022.
“‘Lantern stories’ invites the viewer to learn more about the history of immigration — about the racial violence, exclusionary policies, and all the injustices throughout history and current times faced on multiple levels by the AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] community,” Wu said.
To develop the work, she held community listening sessions and received feedback on what images would be important to include on the lanterns. “Lantern stories” went on to have a run in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where local artists added their own stories to additional pieces.
Wu’s work sharing stories of immigration also extends to her evolving “Leavings/belongings.” Working with refugee organizations in Worcester, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, and Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico, the installation includes fabric bundles created by immigrants to represent their journeys. Different iterations, including one at Boston’s Pao Arts Center where a video shares the stories of the refugees, have been displayed across the country.
“Walking to Taipei” is on view in an installation titled “Journeys” in Harvard Art Museums Gallery 2600 Level 2. It will be on display through June 2.
“I think every artist hopes that the artwork they create will extend beyond their personal experience,” Wu said of her work. “My journey as an immigrant is a narrative about my own story [but] it also extends beyond, to your story. It is your family’s journey, too.”
大約沒有人不知道東西交通有一條絲路（Silk Road）吧？有一年暑假全家前往長崎旅遊，酒足飯飽之際，晚宴主人提起當地有一條糖路（Sugar Road），這、這也太有趣了，我立刻豎起耳朵聆聽，聽說江戶鎖國時期，長崎的出島是海外唯一的窗口，從出島輸入的砂糖，由長崎經佐賀運送到小倉、京都、大阪、江戶，即是所謂的糖路。
・
不知道是否因為如此，所以長崎蛋糕很有名？家人都愛長崎蛋糕，父親晚年臥病、胃口不好，獨獨願意吃點以長崎蛋糕為原型的義美蜂蜜蛋糕。如今想來，也許他在吃少年時代前往日本，適逢戰爭，物資缺乏，想吃卻無法痛快吃的回憶吧？
・
為什麽忽然想起這些往事？今天兄弟姐妹聚集，一起慶祝雙魚座生日，原本為省事，打算以蛋糕就把大家的生日打發，有人卻說他是老派，希望豬腳麵線＋紅蛋過生日。於是大家約好回來聚餐，並且一起決定今年前往東京旅行的日程。
・
豬腳麵線吃完，蛋糕、咖啡也結束，各家鳥獸散後，我才驚覺不是要討論旅行的事嗎？——大家只會一直吃一直吃，最重要的東京行程，竟無一人提起，到底這是雙魚座的浪漫還是脫線呢？
＃家人對千層蛋糕讚不絕口
＃我這個大姐算花錢有面子
Ben Chen
池上彰赴多倫多
訪談周庭
距2018年在香港，已經是6年
鞥【夏日歌單】 李桐豪／Mr. Curiosity
「在田裡挖芋頭的馬鈴薯奶油玉米先生，到底是住在愛達荷還是愛荷華呢？」
早餐店排隊等油條蛋胡椒餅的時候，沒來由想起《櫻桃小丸子》的卡通歌，納悶電視台現在不知還播不播《櫻桃小丸子》？下意識把視線轉向內用區，試圖翻找桌上報紙電視節目表，確認清水市櫻桃一家人是否安在，但下一秒醒悟，不對，報紙早已沒有電視節目表，再下一秒，又想到，不對，現在根本沒有《蘋果日報》，衛視中文台也消失了，自己也取消第四台了。
掏出手機確認，謝天謝地櫻桃一家人還好端端地活在中視和公視台語台，但哀傷地發現《蘋果日報》、衛視中文台、電視節目表已經不在了。很多事的消逝都是不知不覺，譬如巷口的燒肉飯店，上班途中小公園的櫻花樹，還有愛。
一度，床頭櫃裡放著一個菸盒尺寸的小方塊，Terre d’Hermès，愛馬仕大地男性香氛皂。初相識的時候，在那人租屋處床上兵戎相見，兩個人或擒拿，或肉搏，或廝殺，那大汗淋漓、體液交換的鹹和溼，就是男性大地的味道。事後，對方抽菸，一個人去洗澡，在浴室確認了香氣的來源和名稱，百貨公司買來放在自家床頭櫃，等到那人必須回到另外一人身邊，落單的午夜，打開抽屜，拿出香皂盒貪婪地聞著，彷彿無主孤魂，吸食那人的陽氣。
後來，確認了彼此的關係，一起住。機車雙載一起逛超市，一起看電影，那人一邊騎車，一邊吼著Jason Mraz，「I am finally there，And all the angels they’ll be singing，la la la，love you」，風中吹散了凌亂的歌詞，聞著那人頸間的氣味，硬了。
更後來，因為是自己的人了，香皂併著史蒂諾斯紙盒、過期的發票，香火袋被遺忘在抽屜深處，感情從來是生於憂患，死於安樂。因為沒有亞藝影音，兩個人便不在沙發，追完一季《實習醫生》，因為沒有誠品敦南，所以那些失眠的夏夜裡，兩個人也不再去音樂館一邊聽音樂，一邊鬼扯瞎聊。到底是感情隨著文明場域的消亡而殆盡，還是因為一段關係不在了，所以愛的景點都變成了廢墟？
甚至，連Jason Mraz都不見了。
游泳的時候，發現夏日歌單裡沒有任何一首他的歌，明明以前是很愛很愛的。應該要有《Mr. A-Z》的，像是以往那些星期六的上午，醒得很早很早，下床得很晚很晚，一邊聽著歌，一邊聊著生活大小事，討論等等要吃什麼，然後，讓所有該發生的事都發生。然後，話題愈來愈短，下床的時間愈來愈早，然後，同床異夢，便不睡在同一張床上了，然後，便沒有然後了。Hey Mr. Curiosity，愛是一隻貓，殺死這隻貓從來不是因為好奇，而是因為我們對彼此都不再好奇了。
■【夏日歌單】隔週週一見刊。
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