大南方多元史觀三部曲

珍珠—南方視野的女性藝術

「大南方多元史觀特藏室」為高雄市立美術館自2019年起，藉由新型態美術館的空間改造，重新定位美術館與全球藝術史的鏈結所推出的策展計畫。本計畫重新盤點美術館的典藏作品，建構從地方到全球的藝術典藏與研究脈絡，歷經首部曲《南方作為相遇之所》與二部曲《南方作為衝撞之所》，2024年推出三部曲《珍珠—南方視野的女性藝術》，透過策展重新梳理美術館典藏作品的文化底蘊，再創跨文化的新視域。

展覽由本館與新加坡國家美術館、新加坡美術館共同策劃，以「南方」所匯聚的多元背景下代表性的女性藝術家為策展主題，關注邊緣化的歷史、性別、地理與藝術實踐，書寫多元且扎根於土地的故事，呈現了過去近二、三十年來臺灣與東南亞具開創性的女性藝術家創作，呈現當代女性藝術多元及繁盛紛陳的創作面貌，紀錄著女性視角下，小至個人、大至家國的生命歷程至今仍不斷帶給世人們的啟發，也透過本次展出呈現跨越海洋、島嶼邊界的跨族群與文化共同體，響應本展的展名：Ocean in Us。

中文展名「珍珠」—命名靈感來自紀錄文學《印尼etc.：眾神遺落的珍珠》的中譯名，象徵著本次展出39組，跨越臺灣與8個東南亞島嶼文化的女性藝術家，如同來自南洋海域點點群島上的閃耀珍珠，自海域誕生，從南方折射世界。英文的展名採用了東加詩人艾裴立．浩歐法（Epeli Hauʻofa）提出「海即我心」（Ocean in Us）的概念。在這樣的大洋文化視野，拋離島嶼、部落與國家領土的區隔，走向以海洋作為整體，意即包容身體與環境的主體認同，展現仿如海洋流動的思惟和多元匯聚。

本次展出體現了這樣的海洋世界觀，藝術家自在地從身體內在微觀、個人的私密記憶，或來自日常的愛、挫折與希望，批判性地挖掘被忽視的性別視角、生態、遷徙與藝術物質性的重要性。這樣的世界觀也回應了人類世的迫切需要，從以人為中心的視角轉向與環境共存。隨著藝術家，我們遊走在現實與想像、傳說與夢境間，反映著我們所生存的世界和其無盡的精神性。本展邀請觀眾走入女性藝術家的宇宙，理解她們在仿如大海島嶼的生命境遇中，憑藉勇氣、想像力與開放性，迎接生命的波濤與潮流。

About the Exhibition

South Plus: Constructing Historical Pluralism Ⅲ

Ocean in Us: Southern

Visions of Women Artists

The “South+ Special Collection Gallery” is a project initiated by

the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA) in 2019 to reconfigure and transform

the museum into a new-type art museum, redefining KMFA to establish stronger

connections with global art histories. The project involves re-evaluating

KMFA’s collection to build a contextual framework for the museum’s regional and

international art collection and research. Following the first and second

permanent exhibitions featuring KMFA’s collection, titled South as a Place of Gathering and South as a Place of Changes, the third exhibition, Ocean in Us: Southern Visions of Women

Artists, adopts a comparative approach to curatorially reimagine

connections between the collections of museums to construct cross cultural

perspectives.

This exhibition is a collaboration between KMFA, the National

Gallery Singapore (the Gallery), and the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). It

showcases women artists from Taiwan and Southeast Asia embodying diverse

backgrounds in the “South” and inquire into various topics, including

peripheral histories, gender, geographies, and art practices. The exhibition Features

stories of diversity, resilience and social engagement connected to the

cultural and historical contexts countries, regions and places. The works

display the perspectives of innovative women artists from Taiwan and the

Southeast Asian region spanning the past two to three decades that have shaped

contemporary art. They capture personal, familial, as well as transnational

journeys that have served as sources of inspiration to this world, revealing

the multifaceted and flourishing landscape of contemporary women's artistic

expressions. Meanwhile, the exhibition’s title, Ocean in Us, symbolizes a community that transcends ethnic and

cultural differences, as well as crossing national boundaries through the

fluidity, migration and movements of ideas, peoples and cultures propelled by

oceanic and archipelagic ways of thinking, living and understanding the world.

The exhibition’s Chinese title, “Pearls,” is inspired by the title

of a work of documentary literature well-known to Taiwanese readers – Indonesia Etc.: Exploring the Improbable

Nation, which states, “The Pearls that Gods Left Behind.” In this curatorial

context, “pearls” refers to the islands in the South Seas and serves as a

metaphor and entry point for the thirty-nine women artists featured in this

exhibition respectively from Taiwan as well as eight Southeast Asian countries

and cultural regions. These artists, like glistening pearls born from the

archipelagic in the Southern Ocean, critical engage with the world from the

South. The English title, on the other hand, is inspired by Tongan poet and

marine culture educator Epeli Hauʻofa, who introduced the concept of “Ocean in

Us.” From the viewpoint of Oceanian culture, the concept advocates for a

subjective identity that transcends the divisions created by islands, tribes,

or territorial boundaries to embrace an identity that is imagined by the confluence

of oceanic currents without a singular centre. This exhibition makes

visible oceanic mobility and cultural

diversity emerging from inter-regional and global currents of contemporaneity.

The Ocean in Us embodies an oceanic

worldview that is embodied by the works of women artists showcased in this

exhibition. From microcosmic observations of the inner world to intimate and

private memories, to reflection on love, frustrations, and hopes in everyday

life, they refract the world through their works and critically recovers

overlooked histories of gender, non-human ecologies, migration and the

importance of materiality in art. The exhibition foregrounds the works of the

women artists from the collections of

the three art museums, which demonstrates the urgent need for the world to move

away from a human-centric perspective in the age of the Anthropocene by

co-existing with the natural world rather than extracting from it, as well as

to embrace reality and imagination, legends and dreams, the living world and

the world beyond it. This exhibition is an invitation to understand how these

women artists navigate through art and life’s challenges like islands in the

ocean of life as they overcome waves and tides with resilience, imagination and openness.