Beyond the Shore: A Sea-Based Artistic Research Project focuses on Inter-Asian maritime histories and feminist mythologies, and is presented through the mediums of live performance, dance, film, wearable art, table-top board game, and sound art.

Concept, Research, and Performance: Alysa Leung
Dramaturg, Research: Evelyn Wan
with various artistic collaborators

photos by Anson Sham

Beyond the Shore builds an alternative archive on myths, goddesses, and oceanic culture in the Pacific Ocean, with our home city Hong Kong as anchor point. Recuperating stories of the human and more-than-human who inhabit the margins of history, the project makes use of critical fabulation (Saidiya Hartman) to retell forgotten histories from ancestral conflicts to mermaid myths to legendary female pirates.

We also take on an ecofeminist and decolonial perspective to imagine sustainable futures for the Pacific ocean. Through artistic research on marine life, pearling industries, and deep-sea mining, we build performative narratives to examine larger dynamics of slavery, colonialism, and extractivism amidst contemporary concerns of ocean sustainability and multi-species justice. Our performance project is accompanied by contextual and educational programming such as workshops, walks, and public conversations for diverse audiences.