Between States
—
Au Sow Yee

The term “state” is itself multifaceted. It can refer to “a condition or way of being that exists at a particular time”, or a political entity such as a country, a government or parts of a larger power structure. When used as a verb, then it means “to say or write something”, as in delivering a certain kind of ideology. The term “state” is a chimera of its own—a strange kind of composite body.

When I was still a child in Malaysia, 2020 was a year of great anticipation for us. Wawasan or Vision 2020 signalled a horizon for when the nation would achieve a certain stage of socio-economic development. But this year is not the year of past visions.

This year, every human being on planet earth has had to confront the fundamental question of borders. From the border of every single unit of life, on a viral scale, to much larger situations, such as the borders of nation-states. Crossing borders have become something to fear now. We are not only being restricted by a state or an authority, but we have to practice self restriction as well. The question of borders is also a question of mapping. Mapping in the geopolitical context indicates the existence of the power to fictionalise. The narrative of mapping, and the decision to draw lines on a map reveals the hidden ghosts in play by different nation-states. The South China Sea (or sometimes referred to as the South Sea) is a good example which reveals the power play of enforcing borders and mapping.

“Between States” is an online video programme consisting of only two works, by two Taiwanese artists; they are aesthetically diverse and each looks into different matters.  But “Between States” is a dialectical scenario which takes as a point of departure the encounter of air and water, and further explores questions of borders and maps. It is a “contact zone”, where Posak Jodian’s poetic essay Lakec and Wu Chi-Yu’s politically charged Asia Air come into contact and serve not only as the respective indication of the past, present and future, but also as an index for each other’s contexts.

What lies in between two states? I wonder in my wildest dreams, about crossing the borders, about knocking on the gate of my house in the once golden peninsula of my homeland, from where I live and work now, on an island almost 3000 kilometres away. Wondering and pondering on the water, in the river and the sea, the sea and the air, civilisation and its opposite, wondering if there is one, the border and the map, the visible and the invisible, the audible and inaudible. The contact zone of “Between States” is a confrontational ground where we face our deepest fears yet to be revealed.

Posak JODIAN
Lakec (2018)
HD video
Duration: 20 minutes 34 seconds

Susan Sontag once observed, in Under the Sign of Saturn, that the “recurrent metaphors of maps and diagrams, memories and dreams, labyrinths and arcades, vistas and panoramas, evoke a certain vision of cities as well as a certain kind of life”. Posak Jodian’s Lakec looks into the relations that aboriginal people from different generations have with the river. Rivers have long served as the sites and metaphors for civilisation, but they have also long evoked the associations of rivers and dreams—dreams that go beyond the human-centric, evoking visions of a return to the ancestral roots of mother earth. The last chapter of Lakec states that “where there is river, there I am”.

Posak Jodian is an Amis, an Austronesian ethnic group native to Taiwan, and lives and works in Taipei. The artist has a background in ethnolinguistics and Communication studies, and mainly uses documentary methods and her own ethnic identity as a starting point. Her work is based on long-term field research on tribes of aborigines and the urban life of those who have left their homes. She has participated in various activist movement involving young people who live in between the gaps of cities. She is a member of Halfway Cafe and Haibizi TENT 16-18.

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WU Chi-Yu
Asia Air (2018)
HD video
Duration: 13 minutes 7 seconds

Originally a three-channel video installation, Asia Air is inspired by the aerial warfare schematic left behind by the Air Force Commander Headquarters, and the work examines how the sky is being used, understood, and divided by humans. Historically, humans have used the vast sky for political, military, trade and entertainment purposes. How many air defence zones do we pass through when we fly from one country to another? Now, the sky is being used in even more ways; for instance, drones are commonplace in military, commercial as well as consumer uses—how are we going to develop ways to manage and regulate the use of these devices?

Wu Chi-Yu is an artist based in Taipei. Chi-Yu’s work has long been focused on re-establishing the connections among humans, things, animals, and the ruined world left by technological capitalism. His practice revolves around the moving image and explores the reproduction of oral history and myths. The artist often works in collaborative projects involving installation and performance.

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