The egret's wetland has handles now

The egret lowers its long neck over a dark tote bag, with fine rings of quilting around its feet. Someone has put a zip in its wetland. It seems to have no objection. The fiddler crab in front is making considerably more of an entrance: one claw nearly the size of its body, purple and blue stripes running in all directions. Whatever these two are doing tonight, they are not going to the same party.

Textile artist 洪碧穗 has sewn her familiar Tamsui all the way from the river mouth onto the dinner table. Her exhibition, 《淡水生態與味覺探索——洪碧穗布藝工藝創作展》, includes egrets, fiddler crabs, mudskippers and magnolia, then a-gei, iron eggs and fish-ball soup. A-gei is the town's stuffed fried tofu; iron eggs are its dark, repeatedly braised snack. Hand sewing, piecing, appliqué and three-dimensional shaping give the things you see along the shore and eat along the street plump cloth bodies.

The venue, Shi Family House, has handled its share of objects. Built in the nineteenth century and later bought by the Shi family, the courtyard house witnessed their agricultural-processing, timber and shipping businesses. The family's 1920s firm, 施合發商行, traded across northern and central Taiwan. Under the old tiled roofs, among the red brick, the gathering now consists of small animals and local food, having a party of their own.

On Saturday, September 19, 洪碧穗 will be at the house from 10:30 to noon to talk about the work. On the same bill: a free fragrance-bottle DIY activity, with twenty walk-in places. The exhibition runs September 3–October 19, 2026. Admission is free.