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I am Salmon, Breathing Game, 46 W.I.P. is part of Relate North 12 exhibition and symposium. In addition to the Arctic Art theme, it also contributed to the theme of New Genre Arctic Art Education in the form of workshop.
The exhibition included work in progress materials from I am Salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha W.I.P., that is part of UrbanApa Festival 2023 at Ateneum Museum in Helsinki.
Following the pink salmon to the Pacific, we arriveat Southeast Russia, where pink salmon share
spawning rivers with Hokkaido, Japan. Here, the local Ainu people face challenges similar to those
of the Sami people under colonial rule. These oppressive rules are reinforced by technology, war,
gender bias, and racism, excluding the rights of others. As the artist embarks on her transnational
journey of gender transition, the construct of "the world" melts and becomes fluid. She explains in
the Taiwanese dialect, the language of her great-grandparents that was silenced for four generations
since 1895 under Japanese and Kuomintang rule, a legacy that continues to uphold state-based
domination. The heat from wastewater, combined with global warming, created a conducive environment for
pink salmon to thrive. Currently, 440 nuclear power generators are in operation worldwide, with around
sixty more under construction. On the fringes of popular narratives, these technologies are
intertwined with speciesism, colonialism, and binary exclusion. During the Cold War, the
technological shift from nuclear bombs to nuclear power generators set the stage for new forms of
colonization, such as salmon farming. Concurrently, alongside pink salmon, Atlantic
salmon were being farmed, shipped, and marketed globally. This resulted in salmon sashimi
becoming a popular dish served daily in restaurants and by street vendors worldwide.
The process of multi-layering occurs in the two Channel videos projected onto the material structure in the same exhibition. The videos, presented as work-in-progress footage with narration, layer not only the underwater explorations that took place at Tenojoki, Kemijoki, and Liu Qiu, but also found footage ranging from news reports in policing pink salmon, historical events like racism during the space race, nuclear activism, and, most importantly, the theoretical chapters in
Non-locality of Water (2024). For instance, the literature by T.J. Demos, Timothy Morton and a general sense of decomposing binary notions in exclusionary practices.