stored in a jar: monsoon, drowning fish, color of water, and the floating world

Seen from above in darkness, a floating city of tiny houses on stilts spreads across a black surface like islands, rooftops glowing yellow and copper, a woven dome at its heart, the whole settlement adrift on water that is not there.
Title
stored in a jar: monsoon, drowning fish, color of water, and the floating world
Artist
Tiffany Chung
Date
2010–11
Description
A large-scale architectural model of a floating settlement by Vietnamese American artist Tiffany Chung, herself a political and climate refugee. Built from Plexiglas, wood veneer, plastic, aluminum, paint, steel, cable, foam, and copper wire, and measuring nearly twenty by ten feet, the work imagines vernacular stilt houses and floating communities as a way to consider forced migration and displacement caused by climate change, including projections that parts of Vietnam will be consumed by rising seas by 2050. It was shown in Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice at the Hammer Museum, UCLA (2024–25).
Artwork Type
Sculpture
Installation
Materiality
Mixed Media
Plastic
Wood
Metal
Climate & Ecology Themes
Sea Level Rise and Flooding
Migration and Displacement
Concepts
Place and Belonging
Speculative Futures and Imagination
Methods & Approaches
Speculative / Futures Practice
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Location
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California
Geographic Scope
International / Global
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Affiliated Organizations
Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice, Hammer Museum
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Los Angeles
Media
Seen from above in darkness, a floating city of tiny houses on stilts spreads across a black surface like islands, rooftops glowing yellow and copper, a woven dome at its heart, the whole settlement adrift on water that is not there.Tiffany Chung, stored in a jar: monsoon, drowning fish, color of water, and the floating world