Baka Sakali

2025 | Pier-2 Art Center; Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts| Taiwan

An ocean-blue fishing net evokes the longing that drives so many to leave home: the hope for a brighter future. Like casting a net into the sea, migration is an act of faith: an unpredictable and often risky pursuit, shaped by dreams as much as by survival. The wider the cast, the greater the possibility of return, yet nothing is guaranteed. The fishing net captures the bittersweet tension at the heart of migration: a condition that is at once precarious and aspirational.

baka sakali is a mixed-media video installation developed in collaboration with 南洄映画 SouthLink Film. The installation is made up of a suspended handwoven net and a projection of the video filmed and edited by 南洄映画 SouthLink Film, which features me weaving the fishing net as moving images flash behind me. Among those moving images are lottery scratchers, a body of water, and my mother’s face. The audio plays the voice of my mother recounting fragments of the past in a mix of Tagalog and English.