In Ocean Cage, Tianzhuo Chen presents an immersive work where installation and performance intertwine. Produced in collaboration with choreographer Siko Setyanto, featuring music by the Balinese experimental electronic-gamelan duo KADAPAT and the Javanese singer, Nova Ruth, the work draws directly from the cosmological and social fabric of Lamalera, a remote Indonesian village that still practices a traditional form of indigenous whaling.

In Lamalera, the cry “Baleo! Baleo!” signals a whale sighting, but it carries a much deeper meaning: the presence of ancestors and a divine gift from the sea. For centuries, this call has echoed through practices of struggle, worship, and redemption, embodying a profound relationship between humans, animals, and the spiritual world. Chen weaves these entanglements between fisherman, whale, god, and ancestor into a swirling sensory experience—combining visual art, choreography, and music.

Audiences are invited to submerge themselves in a realm where porous boundaries connect marine mammals, fisherfolk, winds, songs, and spirits. Moving away from modern dynamics of extraction and control, Ocean Cage encourages a vital reconsideration of our cross-species interdependence, ultimately offering new ways to imagine justice far beyond the human realm.