The first artist-in-residence in Lienchiang County’s Dongju Island Lighthouse is to start working as a lighthouse keeper today, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday.
The artist-in-residence project was launched to help promote the lighthouse as a tourist attraction and educate the public about its history, the bureau said, adding that last month it selected two of four groups of artists following a two-month review.
Aside from serving as a lighthouse keeper for a month, artists can use the time to create works of art, the bureau said.
Photo: CNA
The first artist-in-residence is Wang Yu-song (王煜松), a student at the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts of the Tainan National University of the Arts, bureau Deputy Director-General Chen Pin-chuan (陳賓權) said.
Wang uses cyanotype, a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print, to create works of art.
“As the print needs to be exposed to strong sunlight, Wang said that spending the summer on Dongju Island (東莒島) would facilitate his artistic creation,” Chen said.
Matsu is also famous for its “blue tears,” a natural nighttime phenomenon of fluorescent blue patches caused by the algae Noctiluca scintillans that are visible from the shore from April to August, which Wang described as “blueprints at sea,” Chen said
The second group of artists are Lu Wei (盧芛) and Tuan Mu (段沐), who are to move into the same lighthouse next month, Chen said, adding that they are planning to turn objects found on the island into sculptures.
The pair plan to create ink-wash paintings of Dongju’s sceneries and write a book about life on the island, he said.
The bureau would evaluate the results of the project to determine if more lighthouses could be opened to artists, Chen said.
The bureau yesterday also announced a summer and winter subsidy program for the ferry service between Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) and Hualien County — also known as the “Blue Highway.
The summer subsidy, which is to run from this month to mid-September, would cover 80 percent of the fuel costs of shipping operators and part of their expenses to promote the service, Chen said.
In return, shipping operators would give passengers a 15 to 20 percent fare discount, he said.
Shipping companies could also work with hotels, restaurants and bus and tour operators in Hualien to give travelers more discounts on accommodations and other activities, he said.
Uni-Wagon Marine Co is currently the only operator plying this route, with its high-speed passenger ship Natchan Rera ferrying travelers.
The Suao-Hualien sea route gives travelers an alternative route to viewing natural coastal sceneries, such as the Cingshuei Cliff (清水斷崖) and Tofu Cape (豆腐岬), Chen said.
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