Home Object / Homeland

.

Due to Taiwan’s hot and humid climate, Japanese fruit bagging techniques were introduced in the
1980s to protect high-value fruits from pests and to enhance their commercial appearance. Over
the past four decades, these fruit protection bags have evolved from simple paper to complex
composite materials—ranging from water-resistant plastic coatings to embedded metal wires that
assist farmers during application.
During harvest season, countless used fruit bagging paper are discarded across Taiwanese
farmlands. These bags, because of their mixed-material composition, cannot be recycled through
Taiwan’s standard systems. As a result, farmers often resort to burning them directly in the fields,
contributing to a serious yet under-acknowledged environmental issue in agricultural areas.
Home Object / Homeland repurposes these used fruit protection bags collected from the fields.
The bags are deconstructed into paper fibers and transformed using traditional twisting techniques.
By spinning these technologically altered materials—products of four decades of agricultural
innovation—into paper threads, I then weave them into a familiar home object: a paper basket.
Through the reconstruction of this simple, everyday household item, the work invites close
observation of its intricate materiality. As viewers trace the process of unmaking and remaking—
from object, to paper thread, to fiber—they are asked to consider the origins of these materials,
and by extension, the larger question of what constitutes our homeland.