International Conference: A Blast of Lyricism: Contemporary Taiwanese Art and Its Global Connections

DATE : 03/11/2025 04/11/2025
TIME : 09:00–18:15
VENUE : Lecture Theatre, Minto House

Free Event, Registration is Required: Register Here

International Conference

A Blast of Lyricism: Contemporary Taiwanese Art and Its Global Connections

3-4 November 2025

Lecture Theatre 2.55, Edinburgh Future Institute

University of Edinburgh

1 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF, United Kingdom

*In-Person Conference*

This international conference examines the global significance and impact of contemporary Taiwanese art, situating it within broader transnational and cross-disciplinary dialogues. Bringing together scholars, artists, and practitioners, the event explores how contemporary art engages with shifting cultural, political, and technological landscapes across regions and mediums.

Through seven thematic panels, the conference will engage with issues of technological interventions, identity and tension, Indigenous perspectives, reclaimed gender, the lyrical body and fluid memory, art resistance and cultural critiques in the transnational age. By amplifying underrepresented voices in art, fashion, and performance from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other politically and culturally marginalised regions, it challenges dominant art historical narratives. It proposes new frameworks for understanding global art. Advocating for a decentred and inclusive approach to art history, A Blast of Lyricism serves as a platform for critical dialogue and exchange, fostering fresh perspectives on contemporary artistic practices and their global connections.

The conference is supported by the 2025 Spotlight Taiwan Project and the School of History of Art

Conference Organiser: Prof Chia-ling Yang (cyang@ed.ac.uk)

Conference Coordinator: Ms Jiahui Zhou (j.zhou-106@sms.ed.ac.uk)

Project Manager: Dr Katie Hsu (spotlighttaiwan.edinburgh@gmail.com)

Conference Programme (please download the Conference Programme for details)

3 November 2025
08:45 – 09:10	Registration
09:10 – 09:15	Welcome Address: Dr Lucy Weir (Head of School of History of Art, University of Edinburgh)
Panel One 09:15 – 10:55	Art, Identity and Tension in a Divided Region Moderator: Aida Yuen Wong
	1. Junghee Moon (Tainan National University of the Arts) “The Origin of Othered Subjectivity of Monochrome Painting in Contemporary Asian Art”
	2. Shih-ming Pai (National Taiwan Normal University) “Cultural Introspection toward a Free System: The De-institutionalization and Street Spirit of Taiwanese Art in the 1980s”
	3. Roberto Figliulo (Autonomous University of Barcelona) “Dai Bih-in: A Taiwanese Artist in Catalonia”
	4. Jing-jung Huang (Tainan Art Museum) “The Avant-Garde and Contemporary Dimensions of Tseng Pei-yao in Taiwan: Art as a Response to the Self, Land, and Era”
10:55 – 11:05	Break
Panel Two 11:05 – 12:50	Liminal Space and Indigenous Voice Moderator: Doris Sung
	5. Ching-yeh Hsu (University of Taipei) “Creative Assemblages: Taiwanese Indigenous Contemporary Art”
	6. Yi-chih Huang (Taipei National University of the Arts) “Lyric Urban Guerrilla: Embodied Practices in Reimagining the Everyday City and Memories”
	7. Wei Hsiu Tung (National University of Tainan) “Socially-Engaged Art for Rural Revitalization: Artivism, Placemaking and Sustainability”
	8. Pedith Pui Chan (Independent Scholar) “Contested Identities in Liminal Spaces: Visual Negotiations and Representations of Hong Kong in Chow Chun Fai’s Artistic Practice”
12:50 – 13:20	Lunch
Keynote Lecture One 13:20 – 14:20	Jui-Chung Yao (Artist, National Taiwan Normal University and National Taipei University of the Arts) “The Political Geography of the Ruins” Chaired by Richard J Williams (University of Edinburgh)
14:20 – 14:30	Break
Panel Three 14:30 – 16:15	Subversive Ink Moderator: Pedith Pui Chan
	9. Hui-wen Lu (National Taiwan University) “Walking Their Own Paths: Women Calligraphers in Contemporary Taiwan and Beyond”
	10. Kuo-sheng Lai (Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum) “Decentralisation: The Emergence of Multifaceted Ink Art in Twenty-First Century Taiwan”
	11. Henning von Mirbach (University of Cambridge) “Negotiating Identity in Contemporary Taiwan: The Ink Art of Yuan Hui-Li and Koon Wai Bong”
	12. Aida Yuen Wong (Brandeis University) “Ancient Materials, Digital Methods: Lee Chun-yi’s Revolutionary Approach to Ink Art”
16:15 – 16:25	Break
Panel Four 16:25 – 18:15	Immersive Memory and Artistic Agency Moderator: Hui-wen Lu
	13. Sara Simic (Independent Scholar) “Colonial Radio Infrastructures Reimagined: The Possibilities of Former Japanese Navy Fongshan Communication Centre and National Radio Museum as sites of Contemporary (Sound) Art Research Practices”
	14. Kai-ching Hsiao (National Museum of Modern Art Tainan) “Reconstructing Presence: Sound, Memory, and Ink Aesthetics”
	15. Chia-ling Yang (University of Edinburgh) “Plant Time, Handcrafted Memoir, and Algorithmic Art”
	16. Mia Yinxing Liu (Johns Hopkins University) “The Architectonic Circle of Digital Being: The Art of Huang Hsin-Chien”
4 November 2025
Panel Five 09:10 – 10:55	Unbound Fibre in Transnational Dialogue Moderator: Kyunghee Pyun
	17. Wessie Ling (London Metropolitan University) “Transnational Threads: Interpreting the East Asian Garment Industry through Huang Po-chih’s Waves”
	18. Zhaohua Ho (Fu Jen Catholic University) “Fashion and Cultural Heritage: Tensions between Preservation and Innovation”
	19. Chung-ming Yang (Artist) “Beyond Ink: An Interdisciplinary Practice that Reshapes Printmaking in Contemporary Art”
10:55 – 11:05	Break
Panel Six 11:05 – 12:30	Performativity beyond the Flesh Moderator: Zhaohua Ho
	20. Kyunghee Pyun (State University of New York) “Lee Mingwei’s Critique of Heritage and Memory: Subverting Essentialism of Styles”
	21. Yu-chieh Li (Chinese University of Hong Kong) “Between Digital Human and Non-Human: The Aesthetics of the Body in Contemporary Media Art from Taiwan”
	22. Freda Fiala (University of Arts Linz) “Smells like Belonging: Fictional Genealogies of the South in Contemporary Taiwanese Performance Art”
	23. Yuwen Hsiung (Purdue University) “Echoes in the Dark: Riverbed Theatre’s The Forgotten and the Lyrical Body of Memory”
12:30 – 13:10	Break
Keynote Lecture Two 13:10 – 14:10	Ava Hsueh (Artist, Tainan National University of Arts) “Within the Pulse of Time: Ava Hsueh’s Abstract Painting” Chaired by Richard Thomson (University of Edinburgh)
14:10 – 14:20	Break
Panel Seven 14:20 – 16:10	Art as Resistance in the Post-Truth Era Moderator: Wessie Ling
	24. Billy Beswick (University of Oxford) “Queer Inheritance: Un/doing Gender and the Revitalisation of Indigenous Culture in Taiwan and Beyond”
	25. Kathy Tim King Mak (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) “Cosmic Pebbles: Cosmology and Metaphorical Reclusion in Hong Kong Contemporary Art (2019–2023)”
	26. Pei–yi Lu (National Taipei University of Education) “Care is a Form of Resistance: The Practice of Contemporary Indigenous Art in Taiwan”
	27. Doris Sung (University of Alabama) “Two Coasts, Three Territories: Connecting Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland in the Participatory Installations of Linda Lai and Jaffa Lam”
16:10 – 16:30	Discussion and Closing Remarks
17:00 – 18:00	2025 Spotlight Taiwan VR Filmfest Talk: Showcase of Digital Artist Ya-lun Tao (EFI 2.55) Ya-lun Tao (National Tsing Hua University) Chaired by Shih-ming Pai and with Discussant Mia Yinxing Liu