Fashion designer Ye Gia-Ling established her personal clothing brand in 2012, using Taiwan's local elements as the design theme. For her 2018 Spring/Summer fashion show, inspired by the traditional oyster farming, Ye is cooperating with traditional, hand-painted poster master Yan Zhen-Fa, and photographers Deng Man-Bo and Lin Jian-Wen. They all collaborated to recreate the life of Taiwan’s oyster farmers through a static exhibition, helping the viewer re-experience the forgotten culture of oyster farming. In addition, the photographers donated the bazaar of their photograph collection to the Eden Social Welfare Foundation, delivering love through images and storytelling.
Designer Ye’s specialty is to incorporate the theme of Taiwan's local elements with her design. Ye's passion for Taiwanese culture is embodied in her works such as "Lion Dance" in 2012, "Temple" in 2013, " Kám-á-tiàm (grocery store) " and “Roadside Banquets “in 2014, "Rice Spike" and “Duo Sang (father)” in 2015, “Zhuo Shui Xi” and “Ali Mountain” in 2016, and “tsàu-kha (the kitchen)” and “ts‘uʟ (the house)” in 2017. This year, "CHARINYEH static exhibition - Painting Life" is based on Taiwan's local elements of "oyster cultivation." Ye uses tailoring to transform different fabric materials into the soft lines of waves, tides and silt shoals, as well as rigid lined patterns and rounded strokes, all to express the shape of an oyster shell. Through her costume design, she portrays the strong, yet soft image of the oyster famers.
In order to reproduce the scenery of oyster farming on the west coast of Taiwan in the 1950s, Master Yan Zhen-Fa, hand painted a visual signboard. For the same purpose, photographers Deng Man-Bo and Lin Jian-Wen visited oyster farms at FangYuan Village, Changhua to take a photography series. In their images of the oyster farmers, using only their cameras, they managed to capture the beauty of traditional culture and fashion.
Apart from reinvigorating Taiwan’s descending cultural and artistic assets, CHARINYEH hopes to use this exhibition as an opportunity to invite art lovers to involve in charity and donate. CHARINYEH will donate 300 copies of the “Painting Life” photographic series to the Eden Social Welfare Foundation, as a support for underprivileged children, contributing to families in need! Please call 0800-777-908 or 02-2230-7715#5319 for Miss Wu (service available in Chinese).
