“Farewell, Blacksmith Street” is an Audio-Video Installation from the Blacksmith Project by Yenting Hsu.
Initiated in 2019, The Blacksmith Project focuses on Taipei’s once-thriving Blacksmith Street — Xingcheng Street. This street used to be a gathering place for metal processing industries due to the demand for parts from the ship dismantling industry. However, with the industrial shift and the gradual expansion of the city, these metalworking businesses faced the fate of fading away. In recent years, the scope of Blacksmith Street has been shrinking, and under the wave of urban development, the neighborhood has lost its former appearance.
Yenting was born in Blacksmith Street and spent her childhood between hardware shops and small iron working factories. Despite moving with her family at the age of seven, the intense flashes of cutting metal and the smell of lubricating oil lingered in the artist’s memories, making it impossible for her to leave this place behind. Returning to Blacksmith Street in adulthood, the artist sought to explore not just childhood memories but also the narratives reflected in the urban landscape and the life experiences of the citizens amidst the grand narratives of international situations and government policies.
“Farewell, Blacksmith Street” weaves together the artist’s voice with archival data files, images, interviews, and news materials collected over the years. By reassembling these fragments, the work constructs a new narrative layer, offering an imaginative entry point into the history, memory, and transformation of Blacksmith Street.