▍Exhibition Concept
The works in OceansBetween Us explore refers to the relationship between Kaohsiung and theartist’s hometown of Norfolk, USA as major container port cities.The phrase is literal, yet also ironic in the sense that the distance of oceansno longer presents much of an obstacle to global commerce.

Emphasizing the physicaldistance between places negates the spaces in the middle, in this case theoceans. Across languages and cultures oceans are used as a metaphor for thingsthat are two large for the human mind to comprehend. This kind of language hasfed into the idea that nothing we as humans do can harm an ocean because of itsvastness.

Beardsley uses embroideringinvasive plant species dominating the existing architecture and stitching. Thecyanotypes are created primarily using sculptures of sea creatures made fromplastic packaging. The embroidered photographs and textiles show the visualsimilarities of these ports on opposite sides of the globe, and how globalshipping contributes to the problem of invasive species. Cyanotypes focus on ‘in-between’, the oceans,and how over-consumption and the preponderance of plastic is impacting them.