在一九九八年，李昆霖先生在台南市東寧路創立了一個空間叫做「木本物質」，李昆霖用漂流木來用手作傢俱的一個呈現。第一次到木本物質遇見李昆霖先生，他很熱情的做一個招呼。 因為我們家跟李昆霖先生家也住得不遠，小孩子的年齡也相差不多，所以我們兩家會利用假日孩子有空的時候，會帶我們家小孩去李昆霖先生家拜訪。然而，李昆霖家也布置的非常別緻， 也有很多他自己所做得一些，譬如說吧台啊還有課桌椅。大人就聊天，小孩子就在一起玩，他們 玩玩具啊、畫畫啊。然後李昆霖手藝也不錯，也會做一些創意料理來請我們吃，喝酒配著啤酒來 吃，還滿有它自己的味道。

        李昆霖先生伉儷也會常常到我家來，帶著他們家小孩到我家來。來一起聊聊天啊，小孩子我印象中好像也有讓他們玩陶土吧。小孩子我們就不管他去做哪些事情，反正就愛玩，喜歡做什麼 就讓他們自己去表現這樣，反正沒有在旁邊吵大人就好。


        李昆霖先生到我左鎮的陶藝工作室拜訪的時候，我就弄了沙拉油桶買了一隻雞，要做烤桶仔雞請他。因為外面下雨，那李昆霖先生就問我說「那我們是要泡湯了?烤雞要泡湯了?」我說不 會。後來，我們就把器具搬到這個有百年歷史的老房子的裡面，就生著火，然後在老房子裡面烤 雞。那整個房子裡面是，整個房子裡面都冒著煙，可是也不減我們的興致，後來終於把烤雞烤熟 了，兩個人就喝著啤酒，吃著一隻烤雞要當中午當中餐了。

        因為有一些學校廢棄的課桌椅的桌面，我就請教李昆霖先生說，用這些被廢棄的木頭、桌面、 面板、木板如何來把它呈現，釘在地板上。他也不吝協助我來做這件事情，所以我們兩個人就大 概花了三天的時間，把原來這個廢棄的課桌椅的桌面，釘在我的陶藝工作室的臥室裡面、房間裡 面。讓這個課桌椅能夠又有一個新的一個生命。事後完工之後，我也邀請了李昆霖賢伉儷，還有 他們家的公主一起到我的陶藝工作室。記得那是一個假日，我們在學校，這個地方，也剛好是一 個比較高的台地，我們就一起在工作室一面喝著茶聊著天，共渡一個很寧靜的一個夜晚。

        李昆霖先生工作室搬遷的時候，就選在一個舊的雞舍那邊來做搬遷的工作。那剛好我也對泥作砌牆，這方面我懂一點，我也可以跟他做一些分享。那我們就一起工作疊磚，我是中規中矩按 照這個砌牆的一個傳統結構來做。那李昆霖先生，他就把砌牆也把它當作他一個創作的一個部分， 所以他砌起來，這個線條它是有波浪狀的，跟我們一般一個水平狀有很大的不一樣。那慢慢的， 他又把這兩道牆兩面牆之間又做了一個結合，然後也就隨著那個磚塊的一個斜度，慢慢的讓兩面 牆最後搭起來，做一個造型。那這個就是他跟我們一般人在做事比較不一樣的一個地方。


In 1998, Lee Kuen-Lin held a space called “Woody Substance” in Dongning Road in Tainan City. He made furniture with driftwood by hand. The first time I met Lee Kuen-Lin at Woody Substance He greeted me very warmly.

Because we lived quite close and the age of our children was similar we went on the holiday when our kids were free. I often took my wife and children to visit Lee Kuen-Lin’s home. His house was really chic. There was also a lot of furniture he made. For example, the bar, desks and chairs. Adults chatted, Children played with toys and drew together. Lee Kuen-Lin’s craftsmanship of cooking was quite good. He liked to make some creative cooking. He invited us to eat and drink beer. The food he made had his own taste.

Lee Kuen-Lin and his wife often came to my house too. They took their child with them and came to chat. In my memory, we let children play with clay together. We didn’t care too much about children’s activity, they just love to play. Just let them do whatever they love to do. As long as they didn’t bother us anyway. Once, Lee Kuen-Lin and I knew that around what is the area of the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. There was a wood factory which was relocated before the redraw-ing plan. So we drove a towing crane and picked up for three consecutive days. Woods abandoned by the wood factory and brought them back. 

At the time Lee Kuen-Lin visited my pottery studio in Zuozhen district. I got a sa-lad oil metal pail and bought a chicken to make a roast chicken for him. It was raining outside. So He asked me if it would be possible to achieve our quest to eat the roast chicken. I said we could still make it. Later, we moved all the stuff into an old house with hundreds of years of history. We made a fire and roasted the chicken in the old house. That is why the inside of the whole house was full of smoke but it did not reduce our interest. Then finally we roasted the chicken successfully. We drank beer and ate the roast chicken for lunch.

There here were some desks and chairs abandoned by the school. So I asked Lee Kuen-Lin how to use these discarded wood, tabletops, panels and boards to make the floor. He also helped me do this. So we spent about three days making the floor of my studio. Turning the surfaces of abandoned desks and chairs into the floor of the bedroom and some other rooms of my pottery studio. Allowing these desks and chairs to have a new life. After completing it, I also invited Lee Kuen-Lin, his wife and also their little princess to my pottery studio. In my memory, it was a holiday. We were at school and my studio was a relatively high platform. We were there together, talking while drinking tea and had a very re-laxing night.

At the time Lee Kuen-Lin was moving into a new studio. He chose an old chicken house as his new studio. In order to save some money and because I knew a little bit about building a wall, I shared some of my experience with him. We worked together to stack bricks. I built the wall in accordance with traditional structures. However Lee Kuen-Lin regarded it as a part of his artwork. So the shape he built was wavy. It was quite different from what it usually was. Then slowly he com-bined two walls together along with the slope of bricks. He set up the two walls together and made some sculptures. That was his differentiation from normal people.

I always remember he had a really bright smile and laughter. This is the image and sound of him that it’s hard to forget.

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