“A Song of Seas and Power: The flow of labor, goods and currents”
Artist｜Yang Mao-Lin
Dates｜2021/12/11-2022/4/10
Venue｜Gallery 302, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
Curator｜Iris Shu-Ping HUANG, Chief Curator, Exhibition Department
For China, Taiwan sits on the periphery of the central plains and is centrally positioned for strategic maritime warfare. Taiwan’s relationship to the world hinges on the ocean, whether in the logistical supply chain of commerce, in the battleground for resources and military competitiveness, in the path for linguistical and cultural transmission, or on the route for immigration and migrant labor. Via the sea, all of these factors contribute to the appearance of Taiwan’s ecology in the global context.
The title of this exhibition, “A Song of Seas and Power”, there is an allusion to the Chinese language idiom “Jhu Lu Jhong Yuan” (lit. “In pursuit of deer on the central plains,” meaning a battle for the throne), and an implied pivot from the Zhongyuan culture as the seat of power to re-contemplate Taiwan’s cultural context and narrative in the oceanic cartography.
