Voice of Rolling Tides

by Yung-Hsien CHEN

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In the context of human history and social development, the intertwined traces of ethnicity, culture, migration, and movement have shaped a multi-layered boundary of memory. In 1626, the Spanish Empire built Fort San Salvador  in Keelung, Taiwan. This act initiated a new kind of cultural flow and a geographical landscape where memories coexist.

 

This construction and representation within the landscape framework allow cultural landscapes and the spirit of historical places to coexist, transforming space into a vessel full of meaning. As geographer Yi-Fu TUAN stated, “Place” represents flow and distance, while a place carries people's emotional attachments”.[1] In this state of constant flux, landscape memories are continually reshaped. Taiwanese writer Ming-Yi WU also uses landscape narratives to explore the close connection between craftsmanship, life, and collective memory. [2]

 

From this perspective, “Voice of Rolling Tides” symbolizes the dynamic process of history, memory, and culture as they emerge, recede, and surge again like tides. Curated by Yung-Hsien CHEN, this exhibition features seven artists and collectives: Yu-Jung CHEN, Ying-Jung LI, Han-Po HUANG, Yan-Chao HUANG, Ya-Hsuan LIN, Dimension Plus, and CHW Lab. Through live performance art, Audio-Visual performance, video art, AI technology, and new media, they offer profound contemporary interpretations of local memory, geopolitics, and technological imagination.

 

The works in this exhibition are categorized into three distinct themes: Fissures in the Landscape, Body Memory, and Technological Reverberations. In Fissures in the Landscape, Han-Po HUANG’s “Traces from the Edgelands” presents the land-sea boundary from both macro and micro perspectives, revealing institutional fractures and habitat threats under Cold War geopolitics. Yu-Jung CHEN’s “Blurred Shores” translates the bodily sensations of Tainan’s cultural heritage sites, creating a virtual-real intertwined landscape that explores how external powers regulate a locality.

 

The Body Memory section transforms life’s feelings and emotions into creative subjects. Ying-Jung LI’s “Zatō” recounts her grandfather’s experience during the 228 Incident through family memory, attempting to mend physical and psychological trauma through art. Yan-Chao HUANG’s “Kingdom of Doll, Kingdom of Wawa” uses performative dressing to disrupt desire and employs absurd movements to dismantle social norms, countering the penetration of political ideology.

 

Lastly, in Technological Reverberations, CHW Lab's “Botanical Scroll” is inspired by the history of the Spanish castle in Taiwan. The work uses AI to map the migration of plants, metaphorically alluding to the flow of culture and identity. Ya-Hsuan LIN’s "Eighteenth Space" starts with the Taiwanese “Ricebomber” incident, exploring humanity's emotional dependence on AI and questioning where autonomy resides when human nature and consciousness are ceded to algorithms. Dimension Plus’s “Project Patching” reveals AI bias leading to cultural monopoly by examining misinterpretations in searches for indigenous images, questioning how the generative logic of machine models reflects the value of human existence.

 

“Voice of Rolling Tides” reflects on modernity, treating the “rolling tides” as a dynamic rhythm of life—an echo and a call. Facing the current era of high fluidity and global instability, this exhibition seeks to explore the connections between people and their environment, and between the self and culture, through the artists' works. It continuously questions how the combined energy of body memory, geopolitics, and contemporary technology can respond to the impact of civilization. Within this tide, we hear more than just resonant frequencies; we will see future possibilities.

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[1] Yi-Fu Tuan, “Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience”, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. 

[2].Ming-Yi Wu, “The Illusionist on Skywalk”, Taipei: Summer Festival Press, 2011.