Transoceanic Practice

作品賞析

Artist Lin Yi-Chi created the installation Transoceanic Practice based on her family memories. Many Kinmen residents migrated to Southeast Asia in the early years, seeking livelihoods or escaping war. Some of her elders also traveled from Kinmen to Indonesia. While some of these emigrants settled in foreign lands, many tragically vanished in the South China Sea. Lin Yi-Chi uses the anchor as the core image, representing anchorage and safety, but in fact it is also a kind of confinement that prevents free movement. It is an echo of the struggle of immigrants between their hometown and a foreign land. The accompanying words “Forever, Is(not), Eternal” in neon lights respond to the identity doubts of the descendants of immigrants; the photographs show the scenery of the immigrants’ departure and destination, namely the ports of Houpu in Kinmen and Mentok on Bangka Island, Indonesia, overlaid with poems in four languages: Hokkien, Chinese, Indonesian and English, symbolizing the immigrants’ transitions and practices through different languages.