Video: 10 mins，Colors，4K
Building on Candy Bird’s previous works — Everything Goes Smoothly (2023 Green Island Human Rights Art Festival) and Riverside Fireworks (Motomachi Art Festival in Hiroshima) — this piece continues his exploration of sensitivity and political tension drawn from memory. These elements have become a vital starting point in his practice. By closely examining his own experiences, he translates them into narrative forms that investigate the definition and condition of “gaps,” using them as metaphors for the complex realities of contemporary East Asian societies. This process is also an attempt to heal inner contradictions.
Candy Bird’s latest work, Unnamed Nightshade, was initially inspired by the Taiwanese folk tale of the Tiger Aunt (Hó͘-kó͘-po͘) and the authoritarian education system he experienced in his youth. The film was primarily shot in the artist’s childhood neighborhood. In the video, a mysterious figure drifts through a dark space that resembles a plaza or a park. Massive, oppressive buildings loom in the background, contrasting with the fragile, ambiguous “non-human” state of the wandering being. For Candy Bird, this “non-human” is a metaphor for the endless loss of language shaped by ideological conflicts within his family of origin. Through this work, the artist invites viewers to experience the struggle of moving forward under an invisible weight — the “nightshade” — and to reflect on what this unseen presence might mean and where it comes from.
Director, screenwriter: Candy Bird
Starring: Kokü Liu
Director of Photography: Juan Hsiang Wen
1st AC: Cheng Hsiang Yun
Sound design: Mothra productions
Character design: fificaca
Special Thanks: Chang Yating , Sung Wei Hsuan
