A milk carton is easier to empty than to recycle on Wang'an

Paper made from some of those cartons now hangs in an old house in Huazhai.

In a photograph of Tsan I-Ling's 《島嶼夢想》 (Island Dreams), irregular pale sheets spread across a plaster wall. The sheets carry drawings of flowers, fish, and small figures. Dark, branch-like supports reach between them. Folded strips project from the wall, and the pieces cast shadows larger than themselves.

Tsan made the paper from milk cartons that are difficult to move through Wang'an's recycling system, working with children on the island.

Tsan's relationship with Wang'an began long before this exchange.

Tsan returned to Wang'an in 2011 after spending close to a decade studying and working elsewhere. In an essay written that year, she identified herself as the fourth generation of a family house in Huazhai. She was running Ping-an Studio and working with local culture and history. Two years later, a public record from Wang'an's elementary school documented her teaching children through printmaking and reused materials.

The 2013 programme was separate from 《島嶼夢想》. It shows that Tsan was already working with Wang'an children, printmaking, and reused materials. The current work continues her longstanding involvement with local history and education.

《島嶼夢想》 is one of nine contributions to Between Islands and Mountains, an exchange between Wang'an and the Nakanojo Biennale in Gunma, Japan. The exhibition brought Taiwanese and Japanese artists into Huazhai houses, courtyards, and other spaces. Three neighboring works begin with particular things already in Huazhai and Wang'an.

Hsiao Yuchi's 《印花、日光和老屋》 (Prints, Sunlight, and Old Houses) sits inside a nearly empty room. Sun enters through the open door and leaves a barred shape high on the wall. Below it, a lamp sends a separate cluster of light through handmade forms. The photograph puts the sunlight and Hsiao's reconstruction of it in the same room.

For 《花宅之庭》 (Huazhai Garden), Maiko Sugano arranged drift material gathered on Wang'an through the courtyard and water-place of a Minnan house. Pale, weathered forms spread across red tile in hard sun. Sugano has arranged them as a garden.

Sayoko Suwabe made 《片片之間》 (Between Pieces) by taking wet washi rubbings from Huazhai walls, coral, and basalt. In the room photograph, irregular pieces hang beside a tall paper plane while sunlight reaches across the floor.

Tsan is named as the artist; the children who worked with her are not. That difference matters when the sheets leave the island: whether each is attributed, who keeps them after the exhibition, and who decides where they may be shown next.

Between Islands and Mountains runs through September 6, 2026, daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at No. 132, Huazhai, Wang'an Township, Penghu.