6414.36 NAUTICAL MILES
Curatorial residency and research project
Full project page available on A4 Arts Foundation website here.
A first discussion between Lemeeze Davids and Amandine Vabre Chau, drawing connections between Cape Town and Hong Kong.
Available here.
6414.36 nautical miles begins with a friendship between two curators across distance. First held in the form of calls between Cape Town and Hong Kong, the project unfolds as a Course of Enquiry shaped by coordinates that are both intimate and socio-historical.
This line between these two cities draws attention to their shared inheritances of imperialism, asking what persists in the ecological, cultural and economic. It is less an attempt at an answer than a mode of sensing: how the urban and natural environment carries traces of the past while conditioning the present, and setting the terms for what is yet to come.
As Lemeeze Davids (Cape Town) and Amandine Vabre Chau (Hong Kong) work together, their research dialogue turns towards form. 6414.36 nautical miles becomes an articulation of a curatorial process, understanding how ideas take shape across time zones, and how research can be held in correspondence. The expression remains deliberately indeterminate, attending to the unfolding of questions as much as to their possible futures. Gradually extending into forms of writing, shared discussion and presentation, each iteration adds to an ongoing process of curatorial exchange.
Process: Details of correspondence over two images of the harbours of Cape Town and Hong Kong. Image courtesy of Amandine Vabre Chau and Lemeeze Davids.
BETWEEN COORDINATES
Full conversation here.
This conversation is part of 6414.36 nautical miles.
Divided into three parts, this discussion establishes 3 key entry points to the larger 6414.36 nautical miles research project. Each serves as anchor and doorway to larger inquiries on the socio-political, historical and spatial connections between Hong Kong and Cape Town.
Part I: The prison and the fort
A cross-section of the first colonial structures in Hong Kong and Cape Town: Vabre Chau and Davids take these two cities as nodes of postcolonial tension which forms the basis of the cultural research coordinates to map their inquiry. Ranging from playful similarities to complex historical connections that inform larger political structures, they explore the depth of their intertwined realities and notice how seemingly disparate elements can influence cultural landscape.
Part II: Shaping the land
An exploration of botanical importation and landscape architecture as structural tools in Hong Kong and Cape Town.
Part III: Perlemoen / 鮑魚
Abalone as a cross-cultural symbol of trade, cuisine, and ecology, through the lens of artistic engagement.