KENT CHAN

MONSOONS

(Water barrels, humidifiers, water, heat lamps, PVC curtains, Meross smart power strips with REST api, 2023)

In this climatic installation, Monsoons aims to recreate - rather than just represent - the experience of the tropics within the exhibition space(s). A series of heat lamps and humidifiers are dispersed around the gallery, mimicking the hot and humid climatic conditions of the tropics, where heat and humidity are in abundance.

The climate devices alternatingly turn on and off within the exhibition space, creating a shifting micro-climate between the different areas of the gallery that recreates the seasonal monsoon shifts. A circulation of moisture that serves as the engine for much of the cultivation, activities, movement and migration within the tropics.

These climactic devices upend the traditional climate-control systems of Western museums, where cool and dry conditions are imperative, and where order and systems reign. Geographies, histories, and cultures all blur into one.