Hsiao-Chu (Julia)
Hsia
夏
小筑
Weaving Islands
2023
Governors Island, New York, NY, USA
Featured performance in HOUSE FEST, the weekend celebration of the organizations-in-residence program for the season on Governors Island.
A part of the group show From Island to Island, curated by the Taiwanese American Arts Council.
Partial materials supported by the Materials for the Arts.
Weaving Islands is an interactive performance along with an on-site installation using islands as metaphors to address and question the relationship and distance between individuals physically and mentally. This project reflects on the artist, Hsiao-Chu Hsia, her experience growing up in Taiwan, a trip visiting Iceland for an artist residency program at SÍM Residency, and connection with Governors Island, a historical island in the heart of New York Harbor that was turned into an educational and cultural spot for artists to create and public to visit in the New York City area.
Islands are never physically connected but people living on different lands connect them through traveling, exchanging languages, lifestyles, and cultures. Same as two individuals. People are separate objects but exchange thoughts, stories, and memories. Through the process, a relationship can be built, but changeable. The distance is determined by both sides, and people‘s actions and decisions make it sustained or terminated. Hsia aims to emphasize the variability of the relationship, asking the audience who they choose to be with and keep surrounded.

Fabric blocks were cut into different shapes by hand as various islands, separated around the space. Each unique island represents a unique individual, connected with strings as relationships. The installation visualizes relationships between people, cultures, and countries.




The performance started with the artist interpreting a voyager through body movements, traveling around islands toward the audience. Following the interactive section, people were invited to join the process and facilitate a collective task. In the end, people got close to the center from their original spots as Hsia pulled tight the string that was made into the property. The task demonstrated the theme with new connections between participants, and then a rapid change in their relationships.

The headwear that was used in the performance was a piece made in Reykjavík, Iceland, during the stay at SÍM Residency for the artist residency program.
It was inspired by the island, linked with the landscape and the culture. The whole structure of the object was made with the method of making fishing nets, reflecting on the fishing history; selected colors stand for different elements on the island, including black for black sand, red for volcanos, white for glaciers, blue for rivers, and yellow for lights. It represents a net humans use to capture and carry on memories and stories.
Weaving Islands was a part of the group show, From Island to Island, curated by the Taiwanese American Arts Council which was one of the resident organizations on Governors Island, New York, New York, USA, in 2023. The performance as the project presentation was selected as one of the featured events in HOUSE FEST, the weekend celebration of the organizations-in-residence program for the season. In particular, materials supported by the Materials for the Arts served a great part of the project.