umaumalran: Becoming a Storyteller
策展人：鄧雪真
「為什麼我們總是在看外面的故事？」這是楊慕仁 Ushiw Pakaruku 創作的起點，也是他反思文化認同與敘事權力的核心提問。
來自台東卑南族知本部落的他，選擇以繪畫作為追尋文化根源的路徑，透過圖像回應那些曾被忽略的語言、歷史與神話。他的作品不是回顧式的再現，而是身體經驗、口述記憶與視覺能量交織出的文化行動。
2025年，楊慕仁於屏東台灣原住民文化園區推出個展《umaumalran-成為說故事的人》，展出三件新作為主要核心精神從〈聽故事的人〉、〈說故事的人）與〈成為說故事的人）共30多件等作品，以卑南語貫穿整體敘事軸線，建構出一條由傾聽、表達到轉化的創作進程。
在〈聽故事的人〉中，楊慕仁以語言聲波為靈感，透過流動的彩色線條呈現故事傳遞的能量，畫面如同部落耆老在夜裡講述神話時聲音的軌跡，融合山海記憶與族人生活節奏。這些視覺線索不只是文化族群元素，更是文化在聆聽中被承接的方式。
而在〈說故事的人〉中，他以瓶罐與低彩度色塊構築一個生活場景：族人聚在一起飲酒、閒談、說故事的瞬間。飲品作為生活共享的象徵，也成為語言與情感交流的起點。最終，〈成為說故事的人〉回到他自身與部落的連結，以族服紋樣、常用色彩與聲波意象交織個人記憶與族群符碼，展現藝術家如何在當代表達中建構身份與文化延續的實踐。
這三件作品所傳遞的不只是故事，而是文化記憶如何在當代持續生成的過程。神話、語言與圖像不再是靜態的歷史遺產，而是活的、可行動的能量。正如楊慕仁所言：「把聽來的記住，把記住的畫出來」，他的藝術既是記錄者，也是轉譯者。他讓文化的重量，透過顏料與筆觸重新分配給每一位觀者，邀請他們共同參與這場敘事的重構工程。
在當前全球原住民藝術語境中，「知識主體性」、「口述歷史」與「地方實踐」成為策展與創作的關鍵詞。楊慕仁的創作正切入這些討論。他不是旁觀文化的藝術家，而是參與其中的記憶守護者。他筆下的圖像從族服菱形紋樣、知本大石、神話植物到青年會所，皆非僅作為裝飾，而是充滿靈性與身體感的文化語彙。他挑戰西方策展視角對原住民藝術的簡化框架，也超越地方主義的再現模式，展現原住民當代藝術家如何以自身語言回應全球對話。
藝術不只是保存歷史，更是建構未來的力量。在語言瀕危、文化斷裂的當下，楊慕仁用繪畫開啟另一套知識系統，從土地、語言與身體之間汲取素材，建構出屬於原住民族的創作宇宙。他的作品，不只是圖像的創造，更是一種「視覺語法」的發明，一種讓部落得以自我觀看、自我理解的創作力量。
「umaumalran」這個展覽，既是個人創作的階段性總結，也是原住民文化記憶實踐在當代的典範之一。它讓我們看到，原住民藝術家不只是承接歷史的人，更是創造歷史的人；不只是說故事的人，更是讓故事繼續被說下去的人。
umaumalran: Becoming a Storyteller
Curator Elanyun VAVULENGAN
“Why are we always looking at stories from the outside?” This question anchors Yang’s creative journey and underlies his exploration of cultural identity and narrative agency. A member of Taiwan’s Puyuma Zhiben community, Yang has chosen painting to trace his cultural roots and give visual form to the languages, histories, and myths that were once overlooked. His works are cultural actions where bodily experience,oral memory, and visual energy converge, not retrospective reproductions.
In 2025, Yang will present umaumalran: Becoming a Storyteller at the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park in Pingtung. At the heart of the exhibition are three new pieces – The One Who Listens to Stories, The One Who Tells Stories, and Becoming a Storyteller – accompanied by more than thirty works in total. Framed by the Puyuma language, the exhibition unfolds as a creative arc that moves from listening, to expression, to transformation.
In The One Who Listens to Stories, Yang transforms the vibrations of speech into flowing, multicolored lines that carry the energy of storytelling.
These lines evoke the voices of village elders recounting myths under the night sky, mingling the memory of mountains and seas with the rhythms of tribal life. These visual traces are not just cultural markers;they are channels through which culture is received and sustained. In The One Who Tells Stories, Yang turns to the domestic. Bottles and muted color blocks shape an intimate scene of community members drinking, conversing, and sharing stories. Sharing beverages becomes both a symbol of conviviality and a catalyst for linguistic and emotional exchange. Finally, in Becoming a Storyteller, Yang returns to his personal and communal ties. He weaves traditional garment patterns, indigenous colors, and sound-wave motifs into a tapestry of personal memory and collective symbolism. This work articulates how identity and cultural continuity are negotiated through contemporary expression.
These three works are less about the stories themselves than about the processes through which cultural memory is continually regenerated. Here, myths, languages, and images emerge not as static heritage,but as living, mobilizing forces. As Yang reflects, ‘Remember what you have heard, and paint what you have remembered.’ His art becomes a record and a translation, redistributing the weight of culture through pigment and gesture. It invites viewers to participate in the collective effort of reconstructing the narrative.
Within today’s global discourse on Indigenous art, terms such as “epistemic subjectivity,”oral history,” and “local praxis” shape curatorial and creative discussions. Yang’s work directly engages with these discussions. He is not an outsider observing culture, but rather a custodian of memory from within. The motifs in his work – from the diamond patterns of traditional attire and the great stone of Zhiben to mythical flora and the youth meeting house – are not merely decorative embellishments but rather a cultural lexicon charged with spirituality and embodied presence. Yang’s work challenges reductive Western curatorial frameworks for Indigenous art, transcends the representational confines of localism, and models how contemporary Indigenous artists can engage in global dialogue on their own terms.
For Yang, art is about more than preserving history; it’s also about shaping the future. In an era of endangered languages and cultural ruptures, he uses painting to create an alternative knowledge system, drawing from the interconnected resources of land, language, and body to construct an Indigenous creative cosmos. His works create images and a “visual grammar,” a generative force that enables the community to see and understand itself from within.
umaumalran is a mid-career synthesis of Yang’s creative journey and a contemporary example of Indigenous cultural memory in action. The exhibition shows us that Indigenous artists are not merely bearers of history but also its authors – not only storytellers but also those who ensure the story continues to be told.
楊慕仁善以細膩的線條及筆觸，透過台灣原住民族豐富且多元的族群色彩組合，進行作品意象的傳達呈現，創作內容多以電繪、壓克力、油彩、水彩和沾水筆等多方繪畫媒材，勾勒成長時期，在台灣這片土地上，於自己所生長經歷之族群文化、部落生活、人文互動、原民運動或當代議題等時代記憶為創作方向。更藉由圖繪設計、文創商品、音樂創作和族語教育等相關領域，除推廣台灣南島原住民族群文化外，也長年透過繪畫領域分享自身繪畫創作。其部分作品獲臺北凱達格蘭文化館、屏東臺灣原住民族文化園區、國立陽明交通大學等單位典藏外，更受歐美地區（美國、澳洲、英國等地）以及國內醫界、律師、商界和教育界人士青睞收藏，更多相關創作作品可見於各繪畫個展、繪本、學校與部落社區等公共區域。
