Print & Carve Dept.
You Purchase Us As Laboor but We Are Human Beings, 2019, wood engraving, 251 x 246 cm
TheCube Project Space
You Purchase Us But We Are Human Beings was a collaboration between the Print & Carve Dept. and the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA), inviting migrant workers to create a piece of work together through a workshop and a migrant workers’ march in the street with the people during late 2019.
Migrant workers have filled a large and small gap in Taiwan’s labor force, but they suffered a variety of work- related injuries or have disputes with agents and employers over labor and wage inequalities. During the course of their work, migrant workers suffer from visible physical wounds or psychological trauma, and they are in the shelters awaiting for mediation, litigation, and their own futures. In the Migrant Printmaking Workshop, the Print & Carve Dept. designed an easy-to-use production method to cut down the level of difficulties in creation for the migrant workers. The prints were produced through collective effort with music and stomping, and the 23 large headshots conveyed the migrant workers’ dreams, expectations, and projections of their impression towards the agents. Even though they come from different countries, do not speak the same language, have different backgrounds, or have disabilities due to work-related injuries, the migrant workers still have hope for the future and show different aspects of positivity through Time for Stomping a Song.
The Print & Carve Dept. was formerly a congregation at independent spaces such as Halfway Café, Trapped Citizen, protest sites and parks. They had conducted exchanges with Asian printmaking groups such as the The Institie of People Oriented Culture of Taring Padi from Indonesia, A3BC from Japan, and the Printhow from Hong Kong. They are actively working with the community and participating in social movements.
— Curator ｜ChiaYing Wang
Print & Carve Dept.
Founded in May 2019. A woodcut print collective based in Taipei, Taiwan. It consists of amateurs who are into woodcut print and concerned about social issues. It’s collaborated with many groups and organizations, such as Taring Padiand (Indonesia), Taiwan International Worker Association, TIWA, and Taiwan International Student Movement, TISM. Its works have been presented in AYO-AYO! Tomorrow Must Be Better (National Human Rights Museum, 2021), Tāi-tsiòng-tsòng (Liberty Square, 2021), etc.
Curator : ChiaYing Wang
Holds an MFA from Pratt Institute, New York. Currently works as project assistant at TheCube Project Space. Her focus on social value, self-consciousness, and identification. She used to be executive assistant at Petah Coyne Artwork LLC; project assistant for Asia Cruise: Kuandu Arts Festival 2013 and Asia Contemporary Art Forum at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, and a cog in numerous art fairs, festivals, workshops, and galleries. Residency experiences include Vermont Studio Center (2014), and Cope NYC Project (2016).
