Qiutong Zhai , Seawitch In Residence , 2024
Lighting through, an ocean speaks to rite warm heart between islands. a longitude met, In locale sung with seasons shift :
柔 夏 龍 二 四
在海巫尤其注意时间的重合。高耸的屋顶使室内的荫凉显得庄重，而窗户像被暴晒黏住了一样很紧。我绷起全身用力一推，一瞬间海风猛地涌进来，把我的头包裹起来、睁不开眼。回过神时我正直直盯着海尽头似远似近的海平线，原来我的确已经来到了世界的尽头。
第一晚我睡得很沉。漆黑的夜里，海浪声从我双耳间穿过，我不自觉的跟着大海的节奏喘息着，阵阵长长的叹息中参杂着其他咒语一样的话。而每一浪的间隔中，片刻的彻底寂静时，我的呼吸也瞬时的被大海抽走， 传送到一个真空的另一维度。还未来得及确认这身处异世界的感受，睡眠中的意识又随着呼吸， 溶化在了海浪拍打沙滩的一声叹息中。
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海巫背后有座废弃俱乐部，五层高的楼被野草横生的杂树林包围着。和老房子一样，一切都原封不动地被遗弃了。餐厅有十二把椅子围成一个环形，半满的酒瓶堆在有用马克笔写了一半的老子格言的纸板下。半脱落的木皮天花板缝中藏着人，随着我踩得地板的吱呀声，几乎是令人感觉不痛快的斯哈地呼着气。 呼出的气没有灰尘的味反而是日本雪松掺着蜜糖的令人沉醉的香气。小人们呼出的小颗粒悬在空中，越被我盯着看越膨胀起来，逐渐大到充满房间，撑的地板在颤。眼前的一切也都扭曲着向我倾斜过来，几乎碰到鼻头那么近，我低下头看到原来一切都架在万丈深渊之中。我被挤得没有地方可走，看着脚下消失的地，只能紧张的大口喘气。充斥所有空间的气泡也夺走了声音传递的空间，呼喊是无声的，心跳也是无声的。余光里，小人们藏在天花板里看热闹。我想也许那也是我的归属。
突然人们的斯哈声变成了哭号，水从房顶流下来，很快就填满了深渊，刚好在我的腰间。实在是太累了，我直接坐了下去全身浸在温热清香的泪水中，柔软的水球潮汐般的涌动着，把我的心跳也牵引着。而在我心跳间隔安静的一瞬间中，我皮肤下一凉，就躺在了海巫门前的沙滩上。海浪呼唤着我，我在阵阵咒语间闭上了眼，安心地睡了。
*Thoughts on: drift, wake, navigation
Contemplating the narratives of our time, of and with ocean and islands - to mend diverse human relationships with living and non-living beings of the ocean through speculative approaches and investigations into posthumanist understandings of time. I seek alternative island and oceanic knowledge in fluidity, nurturing dialectic artistic discussion of navigation and mobility, and stories of isolation and connectivity that blur the boundary of human and non-human timelines. While challenging the anthropocentric view of time, and the capitalist extractivist idea of progress, I ponder the concept of shared time, and an extended concept of residence time, of beings on and across the islands.
Besides flowing and thinking in-betweens: in between oceans, tides, islands, ferries, palm trees, bird songs, and woven baskets, I try to take into consideration the scientific theoretical construct of isolated island ecology, hypothetical islands as literary tropes, and mythical cartography in the context of Indigenous tradition and imperial control; absorbing oceanic nutrients in exploring a speculative understanding of island/ocean and the merging of emotional responses with ecological affects.
images + words : courtesy of the artist (c) Qiutong Zhai 2024