Exhibition｜Alternative Sea for Asia
Date｜2023.04.11-2023.07.16
Veune｜Jeonnam Museum of Art
Sailing toward a multifaceted Asia across the ocean that links us all
The “Alternative Sea for Asia” exhibition began from a reflection on Asian art grounded in the geographical and cultural traits of the Jeonnam Museum of Art, which faces Korea’s southern waters. An “alternative” Asia is a symbol created in the hopes that the continent will transcend ideological boundaries—moving away from its former identity as the Far East, or the place found at the ends of the Eastern seas. In other words, it attempts to bury the East as a concept manufactured relative to the West and, instead, create a notion of Asia as a transnational (as opposed to unilateral) entity. Through the history and cultural customs of different regions, the exhibition presents the ocean as something that can transcend the limitations of time and space to allow for such transnationalism. Starting with artists from the southernmost part of Korea, the exhibition sails across the South Pacific to meet artists of Taiwan and goes further east to engage in dialogue with Japanese artists. In all of these encounters, it makes a record of the many layers of meaning that can be found in the depths of the ocean.
The exhibition is comprised of four sections related to the ocean (Waves, Dream, Transcendence, and Boundary), which are also grouped into“Waves/Dream”and “Transcendence/Boundary”for further exploration of their combined meanings. Waves/Dream offers a journey into a world of dreams that reflects the realities of the waves that undulate on the ocean’s surface, while Transcendence/Boundary offers a visual and semantic experience of the “ideal world” that people once believed existed beyond the ocean. Such spatial experiences become, ultimately, as fluid as the ocean as the object and subject of each objectified artwork start switching places.
