Metaphors about Islands: A Contemporary Art Exchange Program in Religious and Occult Studies between Taiwan and Southeast Asia

Metaphors about Islands

A Contemporary Art Exchange Program in Religious and Occult Studies between Taiwan and Southeast Asia

“Metaphors about Islands” uses islands as metaphors to depict abstract concepts such as relationships between groups and individuals, different types of political cultures, collective narratives, forgotten histories, and ideal futures. By carefully organizing the contextual connections such as the origins of religions, colonial histories, geographical locations and cultures, it develops a relational graph of religion in Southeast Asia.

In this program, Peng, Tsai-Hsuan, Director of Waley Art Taiwan and the curator Sandy Hsiu-chih Lo invite Taiwanese artists Zhang, Xu-Zhan, Lin, Yi-Chi and Chen, Chun-Yu, collaborating with Malaysian artist collective Lostgens’ as well as Indonesian artist collectives Gudskul, Pind.Ink, Blanco Benz Atelier and Studio Malya.

Curatorial Statement

Metaphors about Islands

“Metaphors about islands” hopes to use metaphorical imagination from the perspective of islands to try to outline the mapping of alternative inner Asian or the global relationship.

My heart is an island

In fact, everyone’s heart is an island. Especially in the era of global pandemics, the forced isolation of individuals at home is more like isolated island. How to establish the relationships with outside world stands the test of any kind, especially the ability of mobility, connection, imagination and creativity. It is the principle that never changes in any time. This curatorial unit “Metaphors about Islands” starts from “My heart is an island” to reimagine the relationship between the individual and the world.

I look at you on another island from this island

There are thousands and hundreds of relationships between islands, not only the different in size, but also the master-slave relationship, or special historical, economic, political, and cultural linkages. No matter looking at from which island or seeing through which perspective, you will find that there are unlimited possibilities to depict the picture of “I look at you on another island from this island”, which outline the relationships between an islands and another island.

Pearls lost by the Gods

The interconnections between multiple islands are often named beautifully, such as “Pearls Lost by the Gods”, “Gem Bracelets”, “Pearl Necklaces” and so on. In fact, some of the relationships between islands have the same beautiful and intimacy as the names; however, there are also some relationships between the islands that are as mysterious and thought-provoking as the names, such as the famous “boundaries of the first island chain.” As a metaphor of the archipelago, “Lost Pearls of the Gods” intends to imagine the possible relationship between groups or collectives, or the various possible scenarios of collective narratives.

Forgotten islands

There are many islands that once existed in history but long been forgotten in a certain time and space, or abandoned in an unknown corner. Moreover, numerous isolated islands that coexist with us in the present time and space are neglected for various reasons. This curatorial project aims to view these islands through an artistic perspective, and to reveal these isolated islands forgotten by the world.

Legendary Utopias

Utopia was originally a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean and an organized ideal society described by Thomas More in the book Utopia published in 1516. However, other concepts such as dystopia, Cacotopia, kakotopia, or anti-utopia are also derived from it. In many cultures, there is also a concept similar to utopia; therefore, in this curatorial unit, we try to find new narratives that build the future together by rethinking the concept of utopia and the metaphor of dystopia and heterotopiain in different cultures and legend.

Just like the dialectic utopia discussed by Jean Baudrillard, utopia is a fundamental modification of the existing order. The realized utopia is a new place that will be subject to new criticism and attract newer utopias. Utopia is a stage of theoretical construction and can only exist as part of a dialectical utopia. Only through a dialectically updated utopia can we articulate new ideals of residence, both inside and outside the current system.

Therefore, “Metaphors about Islands” not only pays attention to individual differences, but also a brand-new community discourse. It does not seek the integrity of the place that is still lost, but seeks a brand-new community focusing on the cultural imagination of the invisible subjects/unclassifiable multitude. The key is to regard the art practice as an open platform for communication and exchange, and a public space that condenses the imagination of the community, a “critical, liberatory, and emancipatory” concept of time and space, and is also a heterotopia between reality and imagination, calling for the production of the relative and relational space, and both dialectically operating in the actual living space and acting on the abstract immaterial cultural space.

Exhibition in Malaysia
Opening 13/11/2021 8pm
Exhibition Date｜2021/11/13 (Sat.) –11/28 (Sun.)

Mon. Close
Tue. – Fri. 14:00 – 20:00
Sat. – Sun. 14:00 – 21:00

by appointment
+60 19-683 8397 (Yeoh)　+60 16 938 8775 (JJ)
Venue｜Lostgens’ (8c, Jalan Panggong, 50000 Kuala Lumpur,，Malaysia.

Exhibition in Taiwan
Exhibition Date｜2021/11/13 (Sat.)–12/12 (Sun.)
Venue｜水谷藝術（台北市萬華區萬大路322巷6號）
Waley Art (No. 6, Lane 322, Wanda Road, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan)

Curator’s Foreword

Ring Project is an art project jointly initiated by independent curators Sandy Hsiu-chih Lo and Gudskul, emphasizing the following five basic values:

Omnipresent and Infinite: embraces an infinite variety of world epistemologies, as well as an unlimited multiverse.

Friendship and Connection: intends to share the unique worlds discovered by each other through sincere dialogue and free communication, and build a shared world collectively.

Arena and Sanctuary: imagines a shared place where everyone can find a sense of belonging as the goal of collective action and the highest aesthetic ideal.

Recycling and Regeneration: establishes a relationship with the things of the world and give different meanings to each person’s life based on the love of the world.

Emptiness/Openness and Sanctity/Secularity: the sacredness comes from the numerous narratives of individual life and the topographies of the multiverse.

Curator

Sandy Hsiu-chih Lo

Sandy Hsiu-chih Lo is an independent curator whose main research areas include urban theory, philosophical construction of space, gender politics, contemporaneity of aboriginal art, and situated knowledge. Her current program focuses on curating as a method of social practice, spatial practice, and critical thinking.

Curating topography, a curatorial practice method that she has actively used in recent years, uses relative and relational spatial concepts to bring to light different cultural concepts such as myths, legends, history, memories, morals, ethics, desires and rights embedded in the pluralistic dialectic concept of place in order to strengthen political and ethical transformation through the contrast, confrontation, overlap, and juxtaposition in the becoming of space.