Serena Chang: Sweet Water

January 10, 2025 – February 15, 2025
island gallery

83 Bowery, 2nd floor
New York, NY

Image courtesy to the artist.

Image courtesy to the artist.

island is pleased to present New York-based artist Serena Chang’s debut solo exhibition, sweet water.

The installation transforms the gallery into a hauntingly poetic sugarcane ghost forest. Constructed from sheer nude hosiery stretched across translucent plastic sheeting and steel rod armatures, the spectral sugarcane stalks emerge as semi-transparent, skeletal figures. Upon entering, viewers are enveloped in a richly layered narrative, where interconnected works weave together memory, labor, and lineage.

A collage of packaging molds and diaphanous hosiery forms the backdrop for a hypnotic video montage, its imagery flowing between the rhythmic motions of Taiwan’s hosiery factories and delicate sketches inspired by the artist’s father’s childhood memories. This visual journey is accompanied by a textured soundscape—a symphony of mechanical hums, insect calls, and whispers of nature—that blurs the boundaries between industry and intimacy. Nearby, a framed collage of fragile hosiery captures the ephemeral essence of memory and craftsmanship, merging materiality with familial connection to evoke a poignant memento of heritage. Anchoring the installation is a drawing of a sugarcane field, rooted in the father’s recollections, which grounds the space in personal and historical landscapes, offering a quiet homage to the bittersweet legacy of sugarcane cultivation and its intertwined stories of prosperity, struggle, and cultural identity.

-words by Do Tuong Linh

Serena Chang (b. 1989, Queens, NY) received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. She has given talks at Parsons School of Design, Bennington College, and was a recipient of the SMFA Traveling Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited at Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, VT; Pre-Cog Magazine; Art in General, NY; and Bonnington Center, UK. She co-founded Shisanwu LLC, a sculpture materials research and production studio in 2018 as well as the artist/curator collective Lunch Hour in 2023.

Do Tuong Linh is a curator, art researcher, writer based between Hanoi (Vietnam) and New York City (United States). Linh holds a BA in Art History and theoretical criticism from Vietnam University of Fine Arts and a MA in Contemporary Art and Art Theory of Asia and Africa at SOAS (University of London). UK with the prestigious Alphawood scholarship. She is a part of the Bard Curatorial Studies program class of 2025. Linh has engaged in various art exhibitions and projects in Vietnam, Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond since 2005. She is a fellow researcher for Site and Space in Southeast Asia – a research project run by the Power Institute, University of Sydney, Australia funded by Getty Image Foundation, USA.