In Between Islands – Migration as a State of Mind
Yvette Kim, 2019
Video Art
Ms. Kim’s work is a travelogue that greatly captures the scenes one would experience while traveling by sea. These include the ambient sounds of the gushing sea, busy ports, the howling of the heavy sea breeze, and the chatter of the ferry passengers.
Artwork statement:
Cebu City is the only city in the Visayas among the top 5 biggest cities in the Philippines (worldatlas.com). Categorized as a highly urbanized city (HUC), people from across the region seek employment in Cebu and establish their careers there. Not a surprise indeed because the big city beckons with the promise of a better life, as they say. A place where the grass is greener.
Unknowingly, these people have helped the big city’s economy become larger, and their hometowns left to exist and survive in whatever workforce they have left.
Constant traveling – enables shifts in the consciousness of the worker. In some cases, family members make it difficult for the person to leave. Sometimes despite difficult travel conditions, they have to brave the crossing of the channel (Tañon Strait) to provide a decent life for their families. They do what they must to survive.
If a bridge would be built to connect these two islands (Negros and Cebu) then probably, more migration will happen, a kind of migration that keeps going back and forth, unending.
Video available on: vimeo
