Wang Yu-Song

王煜松 

Two Formosas begins with the fissures left by an earthquake. Rather than reconstructing the scene of the disaster, the work treats the fissure as an interface connecting two worlds—an opening suspended between reality and imagination.

A crack runs through the floor at the center of the exhibition space. Hidden inside it is a sound installation playing an ordinary Spanish conversation recorded by people in Argentina. Nothing dramatic is being said; it is simply a fragment of everyday life. Yet when these voices emerge from beneath the viewer’s feet, they suggest that another group of people exists on the opposite side of the Earth, living lives that are both similar to and different from our own. The distant and unfamiliar voices transform the other side of the planet from an abstract geographical idea into a real world unfolding in the present.

The only source of light in the exhibition comes from a large spherical form. When viewers look toward it, their gaze seems to be drawn inward, as though they were being pulled into another depth of space. The sphere refers both to the Earth and to other celestial bodies, extending the experience of the work from the fissure beneath one’s feet toward the larger scale of the universe.

The plants scattered throughout the space were collected from weeds growing spontaneously along roadsides and in cracks in the pavement. I identified their species and origins, keeping only those native to South America. Carried across oceans through human movement, trade, and histories of colonization, these plants eventually took root in Hualien. They belong to this place while also originating elsewhere. Like the voices emerging from the fissure, they embody another form of connection across geographical distance.

The work also includes a black lightbox displaying the night sky as seen from the opposite side of the Earth. Stars continue to exist during the daytime, but they remain invisible because of sunlight. Only when the lightbox is illuminated does the hidden star map gradually appear. This element extends the ideas embedded in the fissure, sound, and sphere, reminding viewers that many things are not absent; they are simply beyond the limits of immediate perception.

Through space, sound, plants, and light, Two Formosas seeks to reconstruct our sensory understanding of the Earth. The fissure is not only a trace of disaster, but also another way of perceiving the world. As viewers look into the darkness beneath their feet, listen to voices from afar, and become aware of plants and constellations connected to the other side of the planet, the work attempts to awaken a sense of the Earth as a whole. Although we may stand at the greatest possible distance from one another, we still inhabit the same planet.