WHERE WE ARE LANDING

JWD Art Space is pleased to present Where Are We Landing, a group exhibition that poses the question about the relationship between humans and non-human entities within the context of colonialism and the impacts that have occurred in both natural and social realms. The exhibition also explores acts of dismantling, resisting, or negotiating with colonial power that are not limited to human entities.

The exhibition borrows the concept of “landing” from the book Critical Zones: The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth (2020) to explore the cross-border journeys of human refugees fleeing war, displaced plants, the tradition of animal diplomacy, and animal for space experiment. The five participating artists present narratives of the displaced, as actors, highlighting their capacity for adaptation, negotiation, and resilience throughout their journeys. Their landings contribute to natural, cultural, and economic transformations in the new territories; the adaptation of horses and coconut trees imported to Taiwan for The Taiwan Exposition: In Commemoration of the First Forty Years of Colonial Rule appears in the work of Au Sow Yee. While Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi’s film recalls her mother’s memory when she was escaping from South Vietnam to Songkhla after the fall of Saigon, facing Thai pirates and the endless blue of the South China Sea.

Issues of food security and extreme ecological change are highlighted through  Radni Thiemann Beelt’s photographs explore the agricultural landscape in Ciater, West Java, through the history of tea plants imported from East Asia to Indonesia as decorative plants, later turned into a cash crop. As well as Shiori Watanabe’s work, which traces the fate of fifteen bluegill fish introduced from Chicago to Japan as a diplomatic gift and a hope of a new source of protein after the war. While beyond the Earth, Anurak Tanyapalit observes the relentless colonization of the moon and its extraction of resources through a conversation between tardigrades, tiny organisms once sent to the moon for experiments.

Rather than focusing on colonial aftermath through the lens of human-centered geography and its geopolitics, the exhibition proposes an alternative understanding of the Critical Zone; a thin layer above and below the Earth’s surface where humans and non-human entities interact. Where Are We Landing thus served as a question about the future trajectory of the world as a network composed of both human and non-human agents, with each playing a crucial role in shaping the direction of the planet and the ways we live.

This exhibition is made possible by the support from the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture, Project 11 Foundation, and Canon Thailand.

Featuring artists: Radni Thiemann Beelt (Bandung), Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi (Berlin), Anurak Tanyapalit (Chiangmai), Shiori Watanabe (Tokyo), Au Sow Yee (Kuala Lumpur/Taipei)

Curated by Phiraya Ardwichai