GUANGZHOU.- As the stars shift, tides ebb and flow, and islands rise and fall.
The shipping routes crisscross like pathways, converging into the dotted lines on nautical charts, encircling the scattered islands and outlining their contours. Since the inception of these shipping routes, islands have been drawn into the modern world system, whether passively or actively. The conquering desires from mainlands, laden with violence and inequality, persist to this day, shaping our fixed perceptions of islands: They are territories for harvesting cheap natural resources, platforms for various offshore economies and tax havens, idyllic escapes from urban existence, and sites of border conflicts. Bridges, tunnels, and artificial coastlines have delineated clear boundaries between land and sea. Humanity confidently believes it no longer needs to fear the ocean’s storms or beseech deities for calm seas, as it can craft its own miracles—until the deep sea reverberates with a thunderous roar.
We voyage from one continent to another, following ocean currents and seasonal winds, slipping from one sea to the next. Our gaze turns to the islands, revealing a sprawling, flowing, interwoven new world that narrates its own story.
The exhibition gathers 16 artists and groups who, through videos, photographs, sounds, sculptures, installations, and historical materials, re-stage narratives oscillating between fictional imaginings, real dilemmas, and future speculations that weave together a multi-act play starring humans, deities, monsters, pirates, and aquatic species. Piercing through a haze of historical doubts—from Cheung Po Tsai’s treasure in the Wanshan Archipelago of Lingdingyang Bay to the boat temple of the water goddess San Po, and the Pirate Queen of Daya Bay…from the shamans of Jeju Island to the Garuda legends of Java, to the deep, resonant chants of Orchid Island (Lanyu). These maritime myths, beliefs, and rituals intertwine with contemporary maritime miracles surrounding deep-sea fishing, cross-sea infrastructure, land reclamation, and energy industries. The ocean may no longer be an unconquerable entity, but it remains a cradle of imagination. Audiences will be invited into a drifting, open sea, shuttling through the artistically constructed islands and atolls, and experiencing a performance that ebbs and flows like the tides. What visions linger in this ambiguous, drifting realm, and what contemporary parables and apocalyptic revelations do they evoke?
In this context, the notion of islands does not imply a romanticized imagination. Rather, it pertains to how islands serve as vessels for thoughts while resisting various acts of violence. It challenges the arrow-like expansion, the insatiable greed driving relentless growth, and the rigid concepts of borders. The exhibition aims to construct a circulatory narrative and spatial structure unfolding across four dimensions: “The Ring of Fire” highlights the geological origins and affinities of islands as well as their correlation with environmental disasters and social upheaval; “The Chants of Voyage” evokes a nonlinear understanding of time and illustrates how sound operates as a historical carrier in the oceanic realm; “Coral, Sand, and Floating Lands” provides new avenues for contemplating territorial issues amid a web of material entanglements, instability, and cycles; and in “New Dreams of Pirates,” we draw from experiences of drifting and exile to negotiate our political and cultural identities between land and sea.
Participating artists: Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina, Dan Archer, ChihChung Chang, Hu Rui, Jane Jin Kaisen, Guston Sondin-Kung, Liao Wen, Alvin Luong, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Qin Xiaoshi, Sim Chi Yin, Weng Fen, Hui Ye, Yu Hang, Zhang Ke, Zhu Xiang
Curated by: Tan Yue
