The works in Oceans Between Us explore the environmental and cultural impact of the ever-increasing number of shipping containers circling the planet. The title of the exhibition refers to the relationship between Kaohsiung and my hometown of Norfolk, USA as major container port cities. The phrase is literal, yet also ironic in the sense that the distance of oceans no longer presents much of an obstacle to global commerce.
Emphasizing the physical distance between places negates the spaces in the middle, in this case the oceans. Across languages and cultures oceans are used as a metaphor for things that are two large for the human mind to comprehend. This kind of language has fed into the idea that nothing we as humans do can harm an ocean because of its vastness.
These themes are explored through a range of media, predominantly embroidery and cyanotype. I use second-hand materials like photographs from architecture books and antique textiles, embroidering invasive plant species dominating the existing architecture and stitching. The cyanotypes are created primarily using sculptures of sea creatures made from plastic food packaging. The embroidered photographs and textiles show the visual similarities of these ports on opposite sides of the globe, and how global shipping contributes to the problem of invasive species. Cyanotypes focus on ‘in-between’, the oceans, and how over-consumption and the preponderance of plastic is impacting them.
Emphasizing the physical distance between places negates the spaces in the middle, in this case the oceans. Across languages and cultures oceans are used as a metaphor for things that are two large for the human mind to comprehend. This kind of language has fed into the idea that nothing we as humans do can harm an ocean because of its vastness.
These themes are explored through a range of media, predominantly embroidery and cyanotype. I use second-hand materials like photographs from architecture books and antique textiles, embroidering invasive plant species dominating the existing architecture and stitching. The cyanotypes are created primarily using sculptures of sea creatures made from plastic food packaging. The embroidered photographs and textiles show the visual similarities of these ports on opposite sides of the globe, and how global shipping contributes to the problem of invasive species. Cyanotypes focus on ‘in-between’, the oceans, and how over-consumption and the preponderance of plastic is impacting them.
