Huaniao Island Public Art Festival Installation – Finding Children of Compost
This art installation is part of the Huaniao Island Public Art Festival 2021. Huaniao Island is a quiet and picturesque island approximately four hours by boat from Shanghai. Its small and aging community lives within a distinctive ecosystem and a traditional fishing culture undergoing social/economic changes brought along by the introduction of the tourist industry. The challenges imposed on environmental and cultural preservation are immanent. The rich ecosystem of the Zhoushan Archipelago, where Huaniao sits, houses many endangered species, namely tree species Carpinus Putoensis.[1] This festival is the pilot to engage artists and the public as creative placemaking to revitalize the culture and economy.
I extend my Finding Children of Compost project into this art installation embedding the same concept of questioning anthropocentrism and advanced capitalism within it. I installed a group of vibrant flags with whimsical symbionts printed on them. The flags are animated by wind blowing from the sea. Eight colourful flags are installed along the seashore line. Another five flags sit a bit lower on the boats behind the front row of flags. They give audiences a closer encounter with the symbionts. I mix Zhoushan Archipelago-specific species with indigenous Australian elements to build the Huaniao symbiont league. The intention is to welcome and introduce Huaniao Island visitors to a non-hierarchical multispecies encounter. The work provokes the sense of wonder that dissipates boundaries and stands to build the relationship, incite collective thinking in nature/culture preservation, and inspire systematic changes in the current time of the Anthropocene.
This art installation is part of the Huaniao Island Public Art Festival 2021. Huaniao Island is a quiet and picturesque island approximately four hours by boat from Shanghai. Its small and aging community lives within a distinctive ecosystem and a traditional fishing culture undergoing social/economic changes brought along by the introduction of the tourist industry. The challenges imposed on environmental and cultural preservation are immanent. The rich ecosystem of the Zhoushan Archipelago, where Huaniao sits, houses many endangered species, namely tree species Carpinus Putoensis.[1] This festival is the pilot to engage artists and the public as creative placemaking to revitalize the culture and economy.
I extend my Finding Children of Compost project into this art installation embedding the same concept of questioning anthropocentrism and advanced capitalism within it. I installed a group of vibrant flags with whimsical symbionts printed on them. The flags are animated by wind blowing from the sea. Eight colourful flags are installed along the seashore line. Another five flags sit a bit lower on the boats behind the front row of flags. They give audiences a closer encounter with the symbionts. I mix Zhoushan Archipelago-specific species with indigenous Australian elements to build the Huaniao symbiont league. The intention is to welcome and introduce Huaniao Island visitors to a non-hierarchical multispecies encounter. The work provokes the sense of wonder that dissipates boundaries and stands to build the relationship, incite collective thinking in nature/culture preservation, and inspire systematic changes in the current time of the Anthropocene.