from the mountains to the valleys, from the desert to the seas: journeys of historical uncertainty – A solo exhibition by Tiffany Chung

Annotation

From the mountains to the valleys, from the desert to the seas: journeys of historical uncertainty – A solo exhibition by Tiffany Chung was the second exhibition hosted by CAMP/Centre for Art on Migration Politics, at the end of 2015. Co-curated by Chung, a well-known Vietnamese-American multimedia artist, the show presented a series of works exploring different aspects of the politics of displacement and flight. From the catalogue: ‘With a glass installation of mass migrating animals, a lightbox installation about the destructive powers of war, and a new series of cartographic drawings mapping areas of conflict and disaster, internally displaced persons, and migration routes, Chung unpacks the many causes and effects of displacement and helps us understand the current refugee crisis’ (p 4). It can be said that Chung’s practice revolves around the act of remapping. In this respect, she states: ‘The impossibility of accurately creating definite borders or cartographic representations of most places remains a crucial objective in my remapping of countries that were traumatised by war, human destruction, or natural disaster. My maps examine how the geographic boundaries of many countries and cities are continuously being changes, shifted and erased’ (p. 6).

Beatrice Galluzzo

What will the future hold for people fleeing war, poverty, or natural disasters? One of the emerging trends is the fact that borders are back. This will restrain people in need and create new social and political spaces of suffering and marginalization.