Speak of Tides

Project in an Art Residency

Speak of Tides is a public art and multimedia work. It centers on a 3.5-meter-long fiberglass installation and incorporates body movement and musical performance. The piece aims to rewrite traditional mythological narratives about women under patriarchy.

What is home? Is the seashell a shackle that molds and disciplines women’s identities, or a harbor that protects them? The artists seek to reconstruct the narrative of the “woman in the seashell” from Eastern mythology. They envision women as active agents who create new perspectives and discourses that belong to them. The power over the seashell should lie with the women themselves, not with the puppets residing within it.

tourists are taking pictures with the work

Speak of Tides is a residency project created during the Aranya Theater Festival 2024. The Aranya Theater Festival is China’s first seaside theater festival and the largest and most influential theater festival in the northern region.

The public art project "Migratory Birds 300" is the largest artist residency program in China. It has innovatively established a platform for creative exhibitions and a network for artistic exchange. Using “migratory birds” as a metaphor, the project brings together 300 creators from different backgrounds to cohabitate and collaborate for 300 hours. With new works, it injects fresh energy into live art and explores the boundaries between art and everyday life.

3D modeling of Speak of Tides

Shuo Phoebe in the studio with the work

screenshot from the video

Collaborations

Situated on Aranya Beach, "Speak of Tides" involved several collaborative performances with artists from diverse mediums, including body performance, experimental music, violin, clarinet, glass burning shows, and drawing. These collaborations infused the work with innovative elements and broadened its artistic scope.

The details of each performance are listed below: