Chang Shan-Hsueh moved his balcony ferns into a gallery

A low cluster of ferns sits on the floor at Double Square Gallery. They came from Chang Shan-Hsueh's apartment balcony near Xingtian Temple. Paintings of plants hang on the wall behind them. In another photograph, visitors stand between the living leaves and a group of narrow canvases.

Chang began growing them there in 2014. The third-floor balcony faces north, receives little direct sunlight, and runs for about eight metres. He told 500輯 that the collection started with one or two pots and has grown to more than two hundred plants.

For Shelter Island, some of those plants now occupy the center of the gallery. Moving them there makes care part of the installation: they still need water, light, and attention during the exhibition, then somewhere to live after it closes.

Chang's 《植物群像》 places many fern forms together on a white field. Large fronds rise at the edges while thin stems cross the open ground. Dark leaves and tight curls sit beside round clusters and patches of brown.

The new 《槲蕨》 is divided into twelve white panels. Green, yellow, ochre, and brown fronds cross the seams. The gaps remain visible even as the eye joins the plant across separate supports.

Five narrow paintings isolate common urban ferns, including 鳳尾蕨, 鐵線蕨, 海金沙, and 腎蕨. A three-part 《大屯火山群》 series follows mountain light from morning toward dusk.

In 2017 Chang wrote to botanist Kuo Cheng-ming and audited a semester of fern taxonomy at National Taiwan University. He read field guides, looked at specimens, and learned to place Taiwan's plants inside the island's geological history.

Chang has also described walking every floor of an unfamiliar building, returning to the same landscape in different weather, and needing time to adapt before he can see what he wants to make. During a 2024 residency in Yokohama, a planned project about local ferns stalled while he adjusted to a place he did not yet know.

Double Square Gallery connects the exhibition title to Taiwan's history as a refuge for species during the ice ages. Chang describes his own balcony as an urban shelter: plants of different origins remained there if he could keep them alive.

Shelter Island is on view through September 26, 2026, at Double Square Gallery, No. 30, Lane 770, Beian Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00–18:00. Jiannan Road MRT Station Exit 2 is the nearest exit named by the gallery.