The exhibition title refers to a lost ancestor, remembered only through family stories and myths, who drowned at sea aged thirteen in 1950s Singapore. Expanding on work shown at FACT in 2022, the exhibition continues Rae-Yen's long-term exploration of family mythology, ecology and Daoist logics.
At its heart is a glowing pond, home to a living ecosystem of organic matter, invertebrates, and microscopic life. Cameras capture movements within the water, which control the environment’s shifting lights and sounds. Artefacts crafted from various materials - including textiles, glass, ceramic, willow, hair and cat fur - drift throughout the space. Through the careful process of making these offerings, Rae-Yen creates a tangible, personal heritage while paying reverence to ancestors past and future, human and more-than-human.
Guided by Daoist ways of worlding, Rae-Yen encourages us to see ancestry and history as something living rather than fixed. •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~• is a cosmology of entanglements and connections between the seen and the unseen: microorganisms, vibrations, energies, ancestral spirits. By weaving human experience into this wider cosmos, we are invited to expand our idea of ‘the living’ and rethink our position within it.
Rae-Yen Song, •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~• (2026). Installation view at Tramway, Glasgow. Courtesy of the artist. Photography by Keith Hunter.