Tsai, Jia-Hong

Hala Fruit As An Indication, 2025

Single-channel video, 3 min. 2 sec.

Hala Fru grows lush and robust at beaches. The leaves, with their spiny edges, protrude in clusters from the ends of branches, and the fruit is used in medicine. Indigenous people believe the shoots at the tip of the trunk can drive away evil.

I have made the image of the fruit into a sign. Starting at the Shitiping pay station, the site of the Makotaay land protest, I conducted a sustained organic occupation wherever I went to address the enduring trauma that quietly persisted after the protest. As for how to continue the narrative and perception, by conversing with community members, I have attempted to gather the scattered fragments of emotions and memories at the site so as to bring subtle, hidden experiences back to the surface.

Photo by Tsai, Jia-Hong