Building on Candy Bird’s previous works “All the best,” (2023 Green Island Human Rights Art Festival) and “Riverside Fireworks” (Hiroshima Motomachi Art Festival), the artist continues to explore sensibility and political undertones drawn from memory. These inquiries have become key points of departure in his creative practice. By closely examining the self, Candy Bird constructs narratives that investigate the notion of “gaps”—spaces of dislocation and ambiguity—used to reflect the complex realities of contemporary East Asian societies. This process also represents an attempt to reconcile inner contradictions. “Unnamed Nightshade” was initially inspired by the Taiwanese folk tale of “Tiger Aunt” and the artist’s personal experience of authoritarian-style education in the past. The work was filmed in the environment where Candy Bird grew up. In the video, an enigmatic figure wanders through a pitch-dark plaza, where the looming, monumental architecture in the background echoes a condition of speechlessness. Through this work, the artist invites viewers to sense the presence of a force overshadowing the individual—and to ask what that force might be.
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
