Farren Chan-Kau
Reclaiming Connectivity
Using the limitations of Fort Lane and responding to its current surrounding surfaces, history and users to embody the oceanic aspects.
‘Reclaiming connectivity’ is a glass installation on Fort lane which is made from a series of cast glass imprints of surface textures and details from the heritage buildings facing onto the laneway. The heaviness of the built environment is transformed into a more aqueous imaginary of transparency, reflectivity, and animated mark-making. Underpinning this work is the desire to reconnect and reawaken memories that have been lying dormant for a long time in the Fort Lane site, and to reconnect with Pacific concepts of Moana and its people. The materiality of glass has both a virtual and real presence which makes it a medium of both metaphor and memory. The colonial city is materially transformed as an affective experience of Moana.
The concept of my glass installation was drawn from Pacific navigators that sailed through the Pacific Ocean and finally reached and settled in the shore of Aotearoa. The ocean has been an integral part of Pacific and Maori genealogy and gives a sense of place. The link between the ocean and the people it embedded in the Pacific concept of Moana and its people. Moana incorporates the genealogical and spiritual oneness of the ocean and its people and its reciprocal exchanges between them. Within the beneficial reciprocal exchanges between the people and the ocean, people look after the ocean and in return, the ocean nourishes its people.
Using the limitations of Fort Lane and responding to its current surrounding surfaces, history and users to embody the oceanic aspects. I responded to the history and context of Fort Lane through my glass installation that highlights the surfaces within the site and embodies the remembrance of the previous shoreline. A series of translations imprints a communication of texture through multiple material processes each one having different characteristics, pattern, changes and morphs as it moves through different media.
I was interested in its reflection and refraction of the glass installation and how light is considered in Fort Lane. Being able to imitate the materiality of water through the refraction of the glass and allow users who experience the glass installation a sense of quietness, refreshment, and a peaceful state of mind in a fluid space. It also creates a feeling of being immersed in the ocean.
