Stove by a Whale

is a collaboration between Steven He and Seongeun Lee curated by Jiayue He.

Shown at Stafford St, London April 18th to May 5th, 2024 then at Moosey Gallery, London as a part of Occult Surge May 23rd to 25th

In collaboration with artist Seongeun Lee, we draw inspiration from our different journeys as immigrants. Despite our contrasting approaches, we share an interest in the relationship between land and water, and how it reflects ideas of displacement, belonging and the search for home.

Together, we created a beach, a shifting landscape that exists somewhere between these two conditions. Land offers stability, structure and the possibility of putting down roots, but it also creates borders that separate us. The sea, by contrast, represents freedom, exploration and uncertainty, a place where movement is possible but nothing can be permanently built. The beach is a place where sandcastles can be built but are inevitably washed away, reflecting the experience of those who continually dream of settling but are never quite able to.

Read more + Read less −

The installation takes place in the aftermath of an implied encounter with a whale, which has left a boat shipwrecked on the shore. The wreck becomes a symbol of rupture, marking the loss of connections to an old community, but also the possibility of new beginnings. Destruction and displacement are not necessarily endings, but can become the conditions through which new relationships emerge.

Throughout the project, we collected objects through mudlarking and metal detecting, treating them as fragments of stories carried across time and place. I think of culture as something almost physical, capable of leaving impressions on other cultures while being changed in return. As we move between places, we bring our own memories, customs and histories with us. These become entangled with those of others, gradually forming new traditions and ways of belonging.

When we first constructed the installation, the islands appeared almost barren. Over the course of the exhibition, however, workshops with local communities brought new objects, colours and stories into the space. Slowly, the landscape began to take on a life of its own, shaped not only by us but by the people who passed through it.

We are interested in these places where the tides change and the ground is never quite firm. By creating a landscape suspended between land and sea, we invite visitors to imagine a space that belongs fully to neither, a border between two worlds where ideas of home, identity and belonging can be continually reshaped.