Leapfrogging the Islands: a Cultural and Art Exchange with Southeast Asian Islands

The Fishsnipers is an artists’ group that advocates the idea of leapfrogging the established mainstream artists by creating radical innovations. Ocean awareness and Taiwan subjectivity, for this group, offer the concepts we need in art. Pursuing its tenacious belief, the Fishsnipers came up with this idea of island-hopping research whose name include three islets in the eastern coast of Taiwan and Batan Island, the northest point of the Philippines archipelago. With its attempt to relate islands more closely to the ocean, the Fishsnipers extended the research to include environment, culture, language, and history. While proving how Western Pacific islands and their inhabitants are connected naturally and historically, the group also intended to find how art practitioners can contribute to the discussed issues. Invited by the Cultural Taiwan Foundation with the generous assistance of the DPlus Art, the Fishsnipers asked Taiwanese and Filipino artists to share their research in the off-shore islets of their respective countries. Thanks to this online project, the Taiwanese art group is able to maintain their collaboration with the Creative Hub in Batan despite the travel restrictions, and to their surprise, the number of overseas participants even managed to grow positively. The Fishsnipers plans to continue strengthening the link of sea, island, and humans and from there they will eventually arouse the public awareness towards the environmental heritage and sustainable development.