Hsu Chia-Wei’s video installation engages with the history of a tiny island off the coast of Matsu, which is situated in the Taiwan Strait. During the Qing Dynasty, the island was the site of a tiny temple. When Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan, the temple was dismantled and relocated to a larger neighbouring island, and a bunker was constructed in its place.

At present, the bunker is a ruin and ownership of the island has been transferred again to the proprietors of the original temple. The island is also under the commandment of a local god called the ” Marshal Tie Jia,” a frog deity. This deity originated from a temple located on Wu-Yi Mountain in China, which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, at which point the deity migrated to Matsu.

In Hsu’s work, the island is used as a stage. Employing the cinematographic device of the “green screen” – a generic background that is replaced in the post-production process with any other background image – Hsu places a fictional version of the original tiny temple on the island. Slowly, the camera zooms out and reveals that green screen on the island. This scenography forms the backdrop of a performance in which a local senior citizen sings a form of folk opera found only in the south of Fujian Province, recounting the experience of WWII. He is the last person capable of performing the opera, which has a long tradition and was known to be Marshal Tie Jia ‘s favourite pastime, but which has now fallen into oblivion.

許家維的錄像裝置新作所表陳的主軸環繞在一座小島，該島位於台灣海峽上的馬祖外海。此作涉及這島嶼的歷史。在清朝，這座島上有間小廟。當蔣介石撤退到台灣後，小廟被拆解遷移至鄰近一作更大的島嶼，其原址上則建造了一座碉堡。現在，碉堡荒廢頹圮，島嶼的所有權也再度被轉讓到原本的廟方手上。這座島嶼受當地一位青蛙神明「鐵甲元帥」管轄。祂原本駐紮在中國五夷山上的廟中。當文化大革命毀了那座廟後，祂就被流放到了馬祖。

在許家維的作品中，這座島嶼被當作是舞台。藝術家運用電影製作的「綠幕」技術（一種拍攝期間使用的替代背景，而後在後製過程中以其他背景合成取代），將虛擬的小廟重新放回島上，卻隨著攝影機緩緩地拉遠而揭露這蒙太奇手法，讓設置在島上的綠幕一目了然。如此的寫景手法構成了一項表演場景，其中，一位當地的老人唱著流傳於福建南方的民俗歌謠。據說，這是鐵甲元帥在閒暇之餘最喜歡聽的曲目，只是現在已經被眾人遺忘了，而這老人是碩果僅存的傳述者。

Graduated from Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains, France, HSU Chia-Wei regards the images production process itself as a real action in the practice of art, developing an alternative relationship among people, material and place. Hsu has had solo exhibitions at MoNTUE, Taipei, Taiwan (2019), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2018), Industrial Research Institute of Taiwan Governor-General’s Office at Liang Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2017), Huai Mo Village at Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (2016) that was recognised by the Annual Grand Prize of the 15th Taishin Arts Award, Huai Mo Village Project at Art Basel, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, China (2016), and Position 2 at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2015). He has participated in exhibitions at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2019), Biennial at Shanghai, Gwangju, Busan and Sydney (2018), 2 or 3 Tigers at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2017), 2016 TAIPEI BIENNIAL – Gestures and Archives of the Present, Genealogies of the Future at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (2016), HUGO BOSS ASIA ART at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2013), and The 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia: This is not a Taiwan Pavilion at Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy (2013). He and a group of artists also run an art space in Taipei: Open-Contemporary Art Centre, an organisation with functions of curation, creation, narrative, inter-disciplinary exchange, education as well as the promotion of art that strives to seek every possibility to create communication in contemporary art. He is also the curator of Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition at Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (2018), THAITAI: A Measure of Understanding at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand (2012), and co-curate the 2019 Asian Art Biennial at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2019) with Singapore Artist Ho Tzu Nyen.