The work *Around Us *is like a journey. Chiu Chen-Hung discovered a bunch of thrown away mine carts by chance, abandoned in a place called “Hoping Marble Mine” in the eastern mountain areas of Taiwan. In the past, these carts were not only used for transport, but also as working stations for the miners to mend imperfect diamonds.
The work *Around Us *is like a journey. Chiu Chen-Hung discovered a bunch of thrown away mine carts by chance, abandoned in a place called “Hoping Marble Mine” in the eastern mountain areas of Taiwan. In the past, these carts were not only used for transport, but also as working stations for the miners to mend imperfect diamonds. These carts appeared similar, without outstanding features; they felt the lack of any design look, and was given purely functional structuring. Chiu Chen-Hung derusted and fixed up these imperfect and abandoned carts, and pasted golden leaves on the bodies.
At the same time, Chiu Chen-Hung started another project inside Hoping Marble Mine. He handmade some letter paper mixing some golden leaves on the surface. Then he gifted these golden leaves letter paper to an Indonesian labourer who works in the Mine to write and post to her home. Before the letters were posted, they were re-printed into multiple large curtains, and co-exhibited with the carts in the space at the end.
For Chiu Chen-Hung, the action of pasting golden leaves on the carts with intensive labour and energy, the process was as if bringing the objects to a certain spiritualisation, like Saints in churches. In making these letters into large hanging curtains, besides transforming memory and text into certain physical objects, Chiu Chen-Hung also tried to co-produce these objects (letters) with shared intentions. At the same time, they became each other’s participants and formed a special bond. The text at this point in time, extended beyond the relationship of time and distance. By reconstructing the relationships of his surrounding people and objects, Chiu Chen-Hung engrave the memory of the site into his work. Thus creating certain future form monument.