Milay Mavaliw

Milay Mavaliw (Han name Zhou Meiling) (Puyuma) spent her childhood in the Katratripulr (Zhiben) Village. After becoming a professional athlete, she went to Japan to study interior design. Working in the design industry for a long period, she found her creative desires unmet and turned to art in the past decade to sincerely confront her own existence. While studying in Japan, she realized her limited knowledge of her Indigenous cultural roots. Therefore, her artistic practice emphasizes the expression of original patterns. Through her acute sensitivity to color and form and delicate textures, she has developed a distinctive painting style. Raised in the community, she is also skilled in woven installations and integrates the tactile experience of weaving into her painting. Hence, her painting often appears as woven, which she calls “weaving painting.” This exhibition features her “Totem Ballad” series, including the “Weaving Painting Series” and the “Gathering Series.” Totems generally refer to ancestral spirit images of various Indigenous groups, which incorporate the connections between humans, nature, and the cosmos found in founding myths. The Totem Ballad represents these patterns woven into songs, symbolizing “memory, unity, inheritance, and hope” expressed in tribal daily rites such as the Harvest Festival and Ancestor Worship. The trembling brush strokes portray the life courses of individual tribe members. From the personal to the collective, and from the tribe to urban, national, and cross-species societies, Indigenous survivance continues to be inherited through these patterns.