Israeli artist Liat Livni took up residence at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KdMoFA) for almost two months starting from September, giving lectures, conducting workshops, and holding an exhibition of the three pieces she created during her stay in Taiwan.
Livni holds an MFA from a joint program of the Hebrew University and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Her artworks have been exhibited in Israel and overseas, and she has also taken up residences in New York and Japan.
She experiments with different techniques, media and materials, such as veneer, paper and sand. Her expressions through “layering” are stunning with colors from nature, not from paints. Her works come into being through sketching, pasting and cutting using a utility knife.
The artist makes use of ordinary things one may find in daily life, such as paper cups and plates, as she explores their intrinsic possibilities. Her themes explore local and cultural issues, while the images blur boundaries between nature and man-made objects.
Her "Reflections on Taiwan" solo exhibition during her KdMoFA residency presented three works: "Tornado - Hourglass", "Windows of modernity" and "Patterns of Modernity."
According to the artisit, the pieces represent both the place that Livni comes from, namely Israel, and her initial impressions of Taiwan as a visiting artist.
"Patterns of Modernity," driven by a common fear of earthquakes, was inspired by floor tiles that were popular in Israel during the last century. "Windows of Modernity" uses old engraved Chinese window frames as the basis for her work.
"Tornado - Hourglass" is a sculpture that unites the floor and the ceiling, which is meant to express the feeling of "borrowed time."