Born in 2000, Ali Istanda(Jia-yu HU) is a Bunun artist raised in the Sazasa community of Yanping Township, Taitung County, Taiwan. Her work After the Flood, There Are Islands was featured in the Taiwan International Austronesian Art Triennial and won First Prize at the 2024 Kaohsiung Award.
In the Bunun language, Sazasa refers to a place where sugarcane grows tall, animals thrive, and people live well. Rooted in this fertile land, Ali approaches inherited culture from the perspective of a younger generation, translating her lived experiences into new interpretations of time, place, and identity.
Her artistic practice centers on the dialogue between Bunun culture and contemporary society. Through printmaking, she transforms memories of the land and community into a restrained yet layered visual language. From her graduation project 13 Months, exploring Bunun ways of understanding time and community life, to After the Flood, There Are Islands, which draws on flood mythology to reflect on change and belonging, she creates spaces in which ancestral narratives meet contemporary experience. She continues to push the boundaries of printmaking through symbols and spatial forms, exploring cultural inheritance and ways of navigating modern life.