Installation view, 2015Under the Climate, 2016 HD video (color, sound; 07:21 minutes)
At the edge of an artificial park, water flows gently, threading through moss-covered stone pools and converging into a deep reflecting pond. The water’s surface mirrors the sky and clouds above, while holding within it the fleeting images of fish and seabirds inhabiting this ecosystem. Here, nature and artifice intertwine, climate change leaves its marks, and human intervention overlays its imprint, creating a space of ambiguous and tense coexistence.
At the heart of the installation are sculptural forms of female bodies, their postures poised between stillness and growth, extending like roots from the water. These bodies are not enclosed entities but open thresholds, embracing the cycles of water and the spread of moss, symbolizing the forces of reproduction and regeneration. As Donna Haraway writes in Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene, “We are all lichens.” These bodies are not isolated individuals but nodes in an ecological network—a symbiotic weave of humans, nonhumans, bacteria, and fungi. This vision of interdependence challenges anthropocentric narratives, redefining the boundaries and meanings of life.
Simultaneously, the work reflects the impact of pollution and climate crises on aquatic life. Polluted fish swim through the water, paradoxical symbols of life—both resilient survivors and stark reminders of environmental degradation. Above, seabirds glide between grace and unease, their feathers marred with traces of industrial waste, as though whispering unresolved mysteries about the entanglement of capital and nature.
The piece draws heavily from Haraway’s tentacular thinking and the ideas in Isabelle Stengers and Vinciane Despret’s Women Who Make a Fuss: “Think we must. We must think.” It invites viewers to reimagine the relationship between humans and nature, not as a binary of control and subjugation but as a philosophy of coexistence. Within this artificial landscape, every element—water, animals, moss, female bodies, fish, and pollution—interweaves into a complex ecological poem, urging us to listen, to think, and to coexist.
At the heart of the installation are sculptural forms of female bodies, their postures poised between stillness and growth, extending like roots from the water. These bodies are not enclosed entities but open thresholds, embracing the cycles of water and the spread of moss, symbolizing the forces of reproduction and regeneration. As Donna Haraway writes in Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene, “We are all lichens.” These bodies are not isolated individuals but nodes in an ecological network—a symbiotic weave of humans, nonhumans, bacteria, and fungi. This vision of interdependence challenges anthropocentric narratives, redefining the boundaries and meanings of life.
Simultaneously, the work reflects the impact of pollution and climate crises on aquatic life. Polluted fish swim through the water, paradoxical symbols of life—both resilient survivors and stark reminders of environmental degradation. Above, seabirds glide between grace and unease, their feathers marred with traces of industrial waste, as though whispering unresolved mysteries about the entanglement of capital and nature.
The piece draws heavily from Haraway’s tentacular thinking and the ideas in Isabelle Stengers and Vinciane Despret’s Women Who Make a Fuss: “Think we must. We must think.” It invites viewers to reimagine the relationship between humans and nature, not as a binary of control and subjugation but as a philosophy of coexistence. Within this artificial landscape, every element—water, animals, moss, female bodies, fish, and pollution—interweaves into a complex ecological poem, urging us to listen, to think, and to coexist.