Artist Li Kuei-pi explores dark side of banana industry in solo exhibition

Artist Li Kuei-pi explores dark side of banana industry in solo exhibition

2023-11-16

Let’s take you to meet Taiwanese artist Li Kuei-pi. She is holding an exhibition titled “Banana Coin,” which is centered on bananas, a colonial cash crop in Taiwan. Through the exhibition, Li hopes to bring awareness to problems in the banana industry and pose questions about our modern-day perceptions of trade and currency. FTV reporter Stephany Yang spoke to Li to find out more about her exhibition.

Scan the QR code to try a game of banana picking. If you can accumulate 2,000 points in ten minutes, you’ll win a prize in the form of an NFT. It’s an exceptionally difficult challenge, but nothing compared to the quotas imposed on a real-life banana orchard worker. Through this game, “Banana Coin,” artist Li Kuei-pi hopes to bring to light problems in the banana industry.

Li Kuei-pi
Artist
You can join the auction to bid your copper banana. The banana industry is a global industry. It has a lot of problems and a lot of issues. They have some NGOS that is also doing research to remind people that the problems made from the banana plantation and banana company. I think although this project now is talking about the relationship with Taiwanese history but it can be global and make a new link to other countries and other banana farmers. It can be a new platform to have more conversations about this issue in the future.

This work “Weather Forecast of Banana Plantation” is a video installation that was created by combining images of “banana money” banknotes with a real-time weather tracker, Google Weather. By integrating these two elements, the weather conditions of former colonial banana plantation sites are then synchronized and presented on a projection screen.

Li Kuei-pi
Artist
This video installation is linked to Google. The voices were made. We used some AI technology. Also, with some music. The video talks about the colonization history in Taiwan and also the banana industry.

Li received her M.F.A degree from Taipei National University of the Arts in 2017. Her works mainly focus on landscapes that are neglected under globalization. One topic she has done extensive research on is Cambodia’s Diamond Island. In her newest solo exhibition, Li focuses on bananas, a colonial cash crop in Taiwan. She aims to bring to light the contradictions of contemporary trading systems in relation to the structures of colonialism. She also explores how colonialism history connects with the present-day economic situation in Taiwan.

Li Kuei-pi
Artist
We are talking about colony history. We are talking about colonialism. We are talking about globalism. Also, today’s economic situation after COVID-19. They have a relationship. In this project, I want to remind everyone, remind people of our history and today’s economic system. Actually, we have a very big relationship. We are not alone. Actually, we are linked with other countries. We are linked with the world for a very long time. But we maybe sometimes too busy that we don’t have enough time to focus on it.

Li’s solo exhibition will be held at the Hong Foundation till Dec. 16.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53