Introduction
By the Force of Others consists of an ordinary plastic bottle placed on the floor of the exhibition space, where it is deliberately or unintentionally kicked by the audience. Inside the bottle is a recording narrating the migratory experiences of three generations—my grandfather, my parents, and myself. The narration reflects on how, in the face of historical events such as floods and famines, the Reform and Opening-up, and the pandemic, our “choices” were often not active decisions, but rather passive responses shaped by structural pressures.
The audience’s kicks not only displace the bottle in space but also interrupt the audio playback, forcing the story to restart from a new position. This constant resetting of narrative and identity—being passively reshaped by external forces—is a metaphor for helplessness.
Concept and Background Research
The plastic bottle is a banal, everyday material that is easily overlooked. At first, one might not even notice it as an artwork. Only through contact—by listening to its story—does it gradually become vivid. Yet the narration is always interrupted by external forces.
As Alexander Galloway has pointed out in his discussion of “protocol,” the political does not necessarily manifest in connections but often reveals itself in ruptures. The bottle’s unstable state in space, along with the cycle of the narration being interrupted and reset, symbolizes the fractures in migrant identity, habitation, and belonging. Behind these fractures lie deeper structural forces—political, economic, and geopolitical.
By the Force of Others seeks to use the drifting of a plastic bottle and an intergenerational family migration story to foreground rupture as a critical gesture. Through this gesture, the work engages with contemporary issues of migration, displacement, and rootlessness within the context of globalization, ultimately posing the question: How should individuals respond to the persistent sense of passivity and helplessness when caught in the tides of history and structural forces?
In the context of globalization, migration, drifting, and rootlessness have become significant issues faced by humanity. By the Force of Others attempts to metaphorically address these phenomena through the relationship between an object and its environment. The mineral water bottle, placed in a public space, lacks a sense of "belonging." It is always in motion, unable to settle in any fixed position. This state mirrors the pursuit of belonging that many people experience in modern society.
As an inconspicuous object in daily life, the mineral water bottle carries reflections on identity and belonging. In this work, its drifting state is not merely a physical phenomenon but also a symbol of the helplessness and fluidity experienced by individuals in contemporary society.