2020 - the year of everything being on hold! All exhibition plans for Paris and China are postponed. However, in terms of making new work it's an opportunity to be embraced. Here is 'Venice' the first panel of a planned five which will make up an artwork entitled 'Port'. When I was working on this in December - February the tragic fate of Venice in the Corona Virus narrative was beginning to unfold. Like all of those who love the city, I feel desperate to hear of its recovery and to visit it again in 2021. 

​“The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences”    Dune - Frank Herbert

Participating artists: Mei-Tsen Chen (Taïwan/France) Inés Diarte (France/Espagne), Fion Gunn (Irlande/UK), Natacha Ivaldi (France/Venezuela), Jérémy Louvencourt (France), Nacoca Ko (US/Suisse), Niki Neuts (France), Virginie Rochetti (France), Martial Verdier (France)
 
Founding member Chen Mei-Tsen describes WAFERS thus “We are a group of international artists who live and work in a fragile world. We are practitioners who work across a wide range of media and platforms to express a convergent diversity – a shared consciousness.”
This is the first exhibition for the group who are passionate about raising environmental awareness and opening an inclusive discourse around important current, global issues. As artists they are committed to responding must imaginatively to environmental crises in order to mediate how these problems are perceived by the wider public. They don’t want to shout down the sceptics of climate change and critics of human migration, better to reach out and and bring them on board.

Irish artist Fion Gunn whose work is inspired by the movement of peoples, joined the group at its inception, is concerned that “in our media rich world, the dramas of refugees and immigrants are played out before an audience. On the one hand this means that we are more informed about what is happening globally, on the other hand, if we are not careful, these often, tragic tales are turned into a voyeuristic entertainment.”
 
3 Previews: Tuesday 17, 24, 31 March 2020 at 6-10 pm Opening Times: from 16 March to 5 April at 3-7 pm
Address: Villa des Arts – 15, rue Hégésippe Moreau 75018 Paris Further information from: meitsen_chen@wafers.world High res images available on request 
Instagram @leswafers

 

So as my solo show looms closer I am in the process of tying up all the threads of the Odyssey: Explorations project with Tate Liverpool - I live in a constant state of overlap! Yesterday I uploaded the documentary film which gives an overview of the whole project and I hope that will make sense...
I think  that I must have a deep seated urge towards complexity. So the project encompassed community workshops in London and Liverpool, the interactive exhibition art Tate Exchange Liverpool; this included the creation of an 'island' made by the participating artists, collateral events such as discussions about the theme of Odyssey from health, literary and evolutionary perspectives, VR training for the participating artists, volunteers, the creation of my pathway digital artwork in VR and the showcase exhibition at Tate in August. God, I feel tired even listing all the elements.....but it was a total buzz.

The digital installation will be included in my solo show at Candid Arts Trust which opens on 6 November.
The links below will take you to the documentary film about the project and to the film of the digital installation with soundtrack by Alan Stones.