Water Carries No Stain (Tan Ma-ah)

Water Carries No Stain (Tan Ma-ah)

Annie Jael Kwan / Lynn Lu

3 min (approx)

Along Campiello Tana, just before the Venice Biennale Arsenale ticket office; 4 sources of water - flowing, still, invisible and collected - become the locus for four voices (2 female, 2 male) and other sounds. Walk between these elements, stopping at the voices to experience the work.

‘Water Carries No Stain' activates memories of a live performance by Lynn Lu presented in Venice (2017) as part of ‘MAP: Waterways’, a performance programme that reflected on diaspora via the water routes of Venice weaving histories that extend beyond the island's boundaries through trade and the travel of goods and people since the 14th century. Consisting of layered excerpts from curatorial research and notes, the artist’s texts based on Marco Polo’s narrative, and her grandmother's escape from China on a cargo ship, the piece evokes how water is a path for personal and public memories that pass on via intergenerational storytelling, with bodies as live archival repositories.

Annie Jael Kwan / Lynn Lu A collaboration between visual and performance artist, Lynn Lu and independent curator, Annie Jael Kwan, who have worked together on a number of projects exploring the spaces of in-between and proximities. Both Lu and Kwan work between Singapore and London, with the many exchanges between cultural and living contexts informing their critical perspectives.

Sound Works © The Artists and Contributors Texts © The Artists, Contributors and Curator Website © Sonic Soundings / Venice Trajectories

All rights are reserved, including the rights of reproduction, distribution, translation in whole or in part in any form.