At 5:17AM, 23th February, 2014, my grandfather passed on. As an artist, I attempts to perform the first one hundred days of mourning rituals for him through an art project. The one hundred days are typically a very traditional mourning ceremony, but my family approaches the rituals with a unique interpretation. Documenting this unique approach of mourning, I record all my family’s deeds for my grandfather within 7 weeks after he passes away in the series “7-7”- a homophone for “mourning” in Chinese. During the first one hundred days, Taiwanese belief is that within the first 49 days (7 weeks, each 7 days as a ritual cycle) the deceased shall be memorialized so that he/she will be blessed in the next world.
The project focuses on the grieving process and reflecting upon the grandfather’s life, while providing an interactive channel to fulfill the ceremony, which hopefully evokes inward dialogue between audience and their loved ones. Meanwhile, people can also see that Japanese culture rooted into Taiwan since the colonization and Taiwan’s social transformation through reviewing the life of a man who lived almost one century.