South Plus: Constructing Historical Pluralism Ⅲ─Ocean in Us: Southern Visions of Women Artists

2024.10.05 - 2025.03.16 KMFA Gallery 301-305


The “South+ Special Collection Gallery” is a project initiated by the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA) in 2019 to reconfigure and transform the museum into a new-type art museum, redefining KMFA to establish stronger connections with global art histories. The project involves re-evaluating KMFA’s collection to build a contextual framework for the museum’s regional and international art collection and research. Following the first and second permanent exhibitions featuring KMFA’s collection, titled South as a Place of Gathering and South as a Place of Changes, the third exhibition, Ocean in Us: Southern Visions of Women Artists, adopts a comparative approach to curatorially reimagine connections between the collections of museums to construct cross cultural perspectives.
 
This exhibition is a collaboration between KMFA, the National Gallery Singapore (the Gallery), and the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). It showcases women artists from Taiwan and Southeast Asia embodying diverse backgrounds in the “South” and inquire into various topics, including peripheral histories, gender, geographies, and art practices. The exhibition Features stories of diversity, resilience and social engagement connected to the cultural and historical contexts of countries, regions and places. The works display the perspectives of innovative women artists from Taiwan and the Southeast Asian region spanning the past three decades that have shaped contemporary art. They capture personal, familial, as well as transnational journeys that have served as sources of inspiration to this world, revealing the multifaceted and flourishing landscape of contemporary women's artistic expressions. Meanwhile, the exhibition’s title, Ocean in Us, symbolizes a community that transcends ethnic and cultural differences, as well as crossing national boundaries through the fluidity, migration and movements of ideas, peoples and cultures propelled by oceanic and archipelagic ways of thinking, living and understanding the world.
 
The exhibition’s Chinese title, “Pearls,” is inspired by the title of a work of documentary literature well-known to Taiwanese readers – Indonesia Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation, which states, “The Pearls that Gods Left Behind.” In this curatorial context, “pearls” refers to the islands in the South Seas and serves as a metaphor and entry point for the thirty-nine women artists featured in this exhibition respectively from Taiwan as well as eight Southeast Asian countries and cultural regions. These artists, like glistening pearls born from the archipelagic in the Southern Ocean, critically engage with the world from the South. The English title, on the other hand, is inspired by Tongan poet and marine culture educator Epeli Hauʻofa, who introduced the concept of “Ocean in Us.” From the viewpoint of Oceanian culture, the concept advocates for subjective identities that transcend the divisions created by islands, tribes, or territorial boundaries to embrace an identity that is imagined by the confluence of oceanic currents without a singular centre. This exhibition makes visible oceanic mobility and cultural diversity emerging from inter-regional and global currents of contemporaneity.
 
Ocean in Us embodies an oceanic worldview that is embodied by the works of women artists showcased in this exhibition. From microcosmic observations of the inner world to intimate and private memories, to reflections on love, frustrations, and hopes in everyday life, they refract the world through their works and critically recovers overlooked histories of gender, non-human ecologies, migration and the importance of materiality in art. The exhibition foregrounds the works of the women artists from the collections of the three art museums, which demonstrates the urgent need for the world to move away from a human-centric perspective in the age of the Anthropocene by co-existing with the natural world rather than extracting from it, as well as to embrace reality and imagination, legends and dreams, the living world and the world beyond it. This exhibition is an invitation to understand how these women artists navigate through art and life’s challenges like islands in the ocean of life as they overcome waves and tides with resilience, imagination and openness.
 

 



‧ Curatorial Team
Tseng Fangling, Head of Exhibition Department, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, chief curator of Ocean in Us
Seng Yu Jin, Director (Curatorial & Exhibitions) and Senior Curator, National Gallery Singapore
Teng Yen Hui, Curator and Manager, Collections, Singapore Art Museum
Sophia Hui-fang Wu, Senior Curator, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Nancy Nien-Cheng Wu, Assistant Curator, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts


‧ Participating Artists 
Arahmaiani (Indonesia)
Agnes Arellano (Philippines)
Chang En-Tzu (Taiwan)
Chen Hui-Chiao (Taiwan)
Chen Yun (Taiwan)
Chng Seok Tin (Singapore)
Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/ USA)
Migrant Ecologies Projects (Singapore)
Quynh Dong (Vietnam)
Labay Eyong (Taiwan)
Gao Yuan (Taiwan)
Amanda Heng (Singapore)
Isa Ho (Taiwan)
Lulu Shur-Tzy Hou (Taiwan)
Hsueh Pao-Shia (Taiwan)
Huang Wen-Ying (Taiwan)
Su-Chen Hung (Taiwan)
Mella Jaarsma (Indonesia)
Aruwai Kaumakan (Taiwan)
Jun T. Lai (Taiwan)
Nge Lay (Myanmar)
Li Ping-Yi (Taiwan)
Lin Pey-Chwen (Taiwan)
Liu I-Lan (Taiwan)
Lo Yi-Chun (Taiwan)
Zarina Muhammad, Joel Tan and Zachary Chan (Singapore)
I GAK Murniasih (Indonesia)
Nguyễn Phương Linh (Vietnam)
Nguyễn Trinh Thi (Vietnam)
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand)
Anne Samat (Malaysia)
Amy Lee Sanford (Cambodia/ USA)
Pinaree Sanpitak (Thailand)
Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam (Malaysia)
Titarubi (Indonesia)
Charwei Tsai (Taiwan)
Jia Hong Tsai (Taiwan)
Wu Mali (Taiwan)
Tintin Wulia (Indonesia)
 
 

 Brief Introduction 

Ocean in Us: Southern Visions of Women Artists is a collaboration between Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA), the National Gallery Singapore (the Gallery), and the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). It showcases women artists from Taiwan and Southeast Asia embodying diverse backgrounds and social contexts in the “South”. This exhibition makes visible and engages with urgent issues globally, including peripheral histories, gender, non-human ecologies, migration, invisible labour, materiality and trauma in art. The works in this exhibition embody stories of diversity, resilience and social engagement connected to the cultural and historical contexts of countries, regions and places. Collectively, the works present the perspectives of innovative women artists from Taiwan and the Southeast Asian region spanning the past three decades that have shaped contemporary art. They capture personal, familial, as well as transnational journeys that reveal the multifaceted and socially relevant landscape of contemporary womens’ artistic expressions. Meanwhile, the exhibition’s title, Ocean in Us, symbolizes a community that transcends ethnic and cultural differences, as well as crossing national boundaries through the fluidity, migration and movements of ideas, peoples and cultures propelled by oceanic and archipelagic ways of thinking, living and understanding the world. Ocean in Us also marks the 30th anniversary of KMFA and the third exhibition of the museum's "Constructing Historical Pluralism" series – focused on presenting narratives from the peripheries.


 Section Introductions 
 
Landscapes of the Body
 
Landscapes of the Body centers on issues that are seemingly ordinary yet thought-provoking in daily life. The body as a contested site foregrounds self-reflexivity, ethnicity, gender, and politics from various perspectives to evoke a multitude of interpretations about bodily relationships. This section brings together diverse forms of visual and sensory experiences, including painting, video, weaving, sculpture, installation, and multimedia. The works interconnect and resonate with each other, fostering new subjectivities between the works and audiences. The human body is the first and the last theatre. By focusing on problematizing the body as political, the artists invite audiences to explore their feelings and emotions in relation to evolving societies in an increasingly polarized world.

 
Ways of Healing
 
“Healing” has been a part of human rituals since ancient times, as a means of caring for the body, mind, and spirit. When facing frustrations or predicaments in life without clear solutions, people seek different ways to provide solace and healing for their physical and mental well-being, in the hope of finding peace in both mind and spirit. Discussions about healing often involve addressing human traumas and losses. This section showcases these women artists’ exploration to cope with and transcend different forms of trauma, demonstrating the social care embodied by their works. While addressing wounds and traumas, their art also signifies self-growth, empowerment and the value of life.
 
 
Migration and Settlement
 
Women have been actively participating in the global movement of peoples to avoid persecution and conflict, for a better life, and for security. Migrating to foreign lands in search of better jobs, education and higher standards of living for women and their families have been driven by both personal reasons and broader geopolitical events. The artworks featured in this section remembers, recovers and identifies the migratory experiences and activities of women who reimagine and shape the story of human migration from the perspective of women artists. The wide range of issues threaded by the corporeality of migration and settlement include border crossings, marriage, involuntary migration, the quotidian act of food consumption, conflict and family stories to critique the processes of social change brought about by geopolitical conflicts and globalisation.



Nonhuman and Ecologies
 
Nonhuman and Ecologies explores the intricate and often overlooked relationships among humans, animals, the environment, and even otherworldly ecologies, emphasising the interconnectedness of all life forms and their surroundings. Artists delve into these themes to raise awareness about environmental issues, challenge anthropocentric perspectives, and foster a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationships that sustain life. The artworks in Nonhuman and Ecologies offer ways of thinking that de-center the human, questioning the presumed superiority of humans over nonhuman entities, while illuminating the agency of plants, animals, spiritual beings, mythological figures and other nonhuman actors in shaping our world.

 
 

Supervisors: Ministry of Culture, Kaohsiung City Government Bureau of Cultural Affairs
Organizer: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Co-organizers: National Gallery Singapore, Singapore Art Museum
Cooperation: Singapore Trade Office in Taipei, National Heritage Board, Singapore
Designated Airline: Singapore Airlines
Support: Zhangqihua Culture & Art Foundation
Gallery Collaboration: ALIEN Art Centre
Friendly Partners: YUIMOM Residence Service Apartment, S.S.A.W Restaurant
Special Thanks: DBS Bank
Program Cooperation: Kaohsiung Film Festival
Education Partners: Conservation and Research Center of Cheng Shiu University, Kaohsiung American School, Kaohsiung City New Immigrants Hall