MAY 2026, HONG KONG)—10 Chancery Lane Gallery is pleased to present We Are The Sea, a solo exhibition by Filipino artist Josephine Turalba, curated by Caroline Ha Thuc. Opening reception with the artist and curator on 3 June, 5-8 pm, while begin Artist’s and Curator’s Talk: 6 June (Sat) 3 pm.
Drawing inspiration from Pacific thinker Epeli Hauʻofa’s powerful declaration—“We are the sea, we are the ocean”—Turalba invites audiences to shift perspective: from land-bound isolation to an expansive, oceanic worldview in which no island stands alone and all beings are interconnected.
For over a decade, Turalba has developed a distinctive practice of assemblage, merging leather, bullet casings, shoe soles, embroidery, and found materials into dense textile works. In her compositions, traditional craftsmanship meets contemporary debris while myth collides with technology: bullet casings transform into slippers or pets, shoe soles morph into manta rays or satellites, mermaids drift alongside submarine sonars, and octopuses blur into drones. Through this fluid visual language, Turalba reveals a world where marine life, folklore, militarization, and digital networks coexist—entangled in both harmony and conflict.
Featured is Drifting Threads and Topographies, a series created during the artist’s residency in Japan and exhibited at the Nakanojo Biennale. For the first time, Turalba works with pina silk—an indigenous Filipino fabric woven from pineapple fiber and silk cocoon. Ten vertical panels suspend viewers in an immersive underwater environment. Embroidered lines coil and uncoil like tides; coral reefs and hydrothermal vents rise toward the surface; boats hover as alien silhouettes above. By destabilizing scale and perspective, Turalba decentres the human gaze, encouraging us to imagine the world in its depth—beneath the surface, among marine species. In this exhibition at 10 Chancery Lane, ten hanging panels, varying in length from 2.5 to 6.4 metres, are suspended above a mirrored floor, as if above the sea. Viewers are invited to walk among the works and engage with their translucence, like swimming through the branches of underwater life.
In a newly created video animation for the exhibition, Re:clamation (2026), Turalba brings together Philippine, Japanese, and Hong Kong mythologies in a shared aquatic space. A young Badjao boy, trapped in a ghost net, is rescued by an oarfish while a sea goddess safeguards his fragile stilt home. The soundtrack was recorded in Hong Kong. In the end, a rain of sand falls from above, alluding to the territory’s reclaimed lands. Myth and political reality intertwine in a narrative of vulnerability and transformation.
The exhibition also addresses militarization and environmental crisis. In Strait Lines (2026), viewers encounter the Detroit of Hormuz from a fish’s perspective: oil barrels sink, dolphins are caught in propellers, and the seabed—rich in coveted resources—becomes a militarized terrain. The thickness of perforated and stitched leather echoes the intensity and gravity of our troubled times.
Yet We Are The Sea is ultimately a testament to resilience. A diver since the age of twelve, Turalba shares a profound bond with marine life. While her works acknowledge pollution, mutation, and conflict, they also celebrate vitality and adaptation. In Re:clamation, the boy’s ear transforms into a gill, allowing him to breathe underwater—a strong metaphor for the possibility of change.
Through vibrant color, mythmaking, and intricate material narratives, Josephine Turalba calls for a reimagining of our place in the world. The ocean is not a border but a continuous body of water, connecting continents, species, and histories. In embracing this oceanic perspective, We Are The Sea urges us to invent new stories—stories that move beyond anthropocentrism and toward kinship, care, and collective responsibility.
Josephine Turalba states, “The imbalance of power and the abuse of authority intrigue and provoke me. The tensions in the West Philippine Sea, where nations stake relentless claims on shoals and fragile ecosystems, challenge us to perceive them as raw and vulnerable rather than as possessions to be controlled and occupied.”
