Tidal Weavers: Islands Exchange at Hong-Gah Museum

The exhibition 'Tidal Weavers: Islands Exchange' at Hong-Gah Museum in Taipei, curated by Ade Darmawan, Zoe Yeh, Takahashi Mizuki, and Bruce Li, runs from 7 March to 31 May 2026. It features 14 artists and collectives from Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan, exploring cultural memory as dynamic practices rather than fixed inheritance. Works include Chang En-Man's 'The Great Deluge: Oral History from Pacavalj' (2025), a cotton scroll requiring slow unrolling and mirror reading, blending Paiwan myth with Bugis epic 'La Galigo'. Ade Darmawan's 'Data Threads' (2025) embeds statistical diagrams and ExxonMobil/Pertamina logos into batik, songket, and ikat. Meita Meilita's 'Wanai Saiji: The Shape of Being' (2025), co-created with Kavalan elders and PateRongan Studio, features embroidered cloth with roosters, mountains, and Kavalan songs. Yip Kai Chun's 'My Deity Wants Me to Wear This' (2025) uses lightboxes and booklets to portray tatung spirit mediums in Pontianak, Indonesia, revealing their personal struggles. The exhibition includes a process video documenting artist-host collaborations. It questions reciprocity when marginalized craft and ritual practices enter contemporary art circuits.