MIXED MEDIA · 2024

South China Sea

What ordinary people don't know is already shaping their lives.

PROBLEM_

A large-scale mixed media installation on the South China Sea conflict, seen through public naivety. Built as a detective board of cyanotypes, photograms, coffee-aged maps and original photography.

MY ROLE_

Sole artist: concept, research, photography, darkroom work, and installation.

RESEARCH_

I started from Gaza and Ukraine, then narrowed to the South China Sea. Close to home, under-discussed, and layered with economic, territorial and military tension.

What ordinary people don't know is already shaping their lives.

KEY INSIGHT_

CHALLENGE_

The detective board became the structural metaphor, red threads mirroring how the public tries and fails to connect the dots. Four photo series covered China's history, espionage, surveillance, and the conflict's root causes.

PROCESS_

Cyanotypes brought in the blue of the sea, photograms stripped colour and context so figures stay unidentifiable, and coffee aging gave the archival maps material authenticity.

SOLUTION_

A 7ft × 3ft detective board of original photography, cyanotypes, photograms, coffee-aged map prints and handwritten notes, all connected by red string.

OUTCOMES_

The board let viewers discover the connections instead of being told them. The piece lived in the visual; there's a version that also hits the body, through sound or something ambient.

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Faces of Power