Shore of the Labyrinth, the Sky at Dawn (2024)
Plastic baskets, acrylic on UV print on 6mm MDF and plastic bags, commodities, lacquered wood panel, laser cut 3.2mm MDF, 3D printed figures, dumb phones. Variable dimensions.The inhabitants of Zomia were once considered runaways, fugitives or maroons due to the constant invasion of their utopian homeland by representatives of supermodernity. Their frequent migrations reflect this history. Shanshui (literally mountain and water or landscape) paintings, with their distinctive style and visual aesthetics, were often treated as commodities in this process. Local people incorporated them into their domestic spaces, along with the infiltration of ideology and the exploitation of natural resources. In the face of political power and production, the hermits who once hid in Shanshui have nowhere to run. This reflection considers the anonymity and exemption from state regulation that individuals maintained in the political void of past zomia. It also explores how contemporary people are inspired to seek strategies of liberation through the landscape. I have traced the phenomenon of homogenisation that underlies contemporary landscape painting, namely state infiltration of national sovereignty and ideological indoctrination.