Art Talk: Sea as the Motif

The sea is History. Globalization is the narrative that sails from one dock to another. Apart from ocean currents, trade, money and various forms of civilizations flow through the boundless distances among isles and lands. The changes brought by globalization lead to the prevalence of the “sea” as a familiar image in contemporary art, but its connotation derived from traditional cultures is only one of many elements when the artists choose the “sea” as their motif. The Western spirit of expedition and the Japanese philosophical reflections of the ocean both influenced and inspired the artists in their art making. The multiplicity of contemporary art is not only embodied in its use of medium, but also in the rich layers of metaphor behind the same pictorial imagery.

Among the Japanese, Chinese and local contemporary artists curated in this exhibition, we invited five artists from Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong to share with us their creative process, their exceptional perspectives and conceptions.