▍Exhibition Concept
In this long-term project, Mica Cabildo imagines a wandering islandin the South China Sea, inspired by stories of fictional, mythical and phantomislands proximate to the region. Mica likewise investigates Taiping Island ofCijin District and the contested Spratlys from a distance, accessible to heronly through scientific picture books, research papers, videos and satellitemaps.

The Wandering Island begins to take shape with textures gatheredfrom the beaches of Kaohsiung and Cijin through photography and printmaking,with a visual language borrowed loosely from topographic maps, aerial panoramasand repeating chintz patterns. Like her memory of remote Philippine islands andcoral reefs, the result is grainy, and vaguely disorienting: are we seeing thehaze that precedes clear outlines, or a landscape receding from view?

We never reallyreach the island, but X still marks the spot.