Josephine Turalba
Unmoored Flotilla, 2025
Embroidered hand-dyed piña-silk panel in deep teal
320 x 76 cm
Further images
This panel depicts a flotilla of small boats navigating unsettled waters. Some remain steady, while others tip, capsize, or are caught in nets. An unsteady compass turns at the center,...
This panel depicts a flotilla of small boats navigating unsettled waters. Some remain steady, while others tip, capsize, or are caught in nets. An unsteady compass turns at the center, and a drifting buoy marks uncertain direction. Each vessel embodies not only a mode of travel but fragile livelihoods, echoing the journeys of fishing communities dependent on unpredictable seas. Boats serve as lifelines—sustaining families, connecting islands, and carrying memory—yet they are precarious and exposed. The stitched texts weave mapping language with the voices of those at sea, registering absence, loss, and endurance, reminding us that the ocean is both a strategic and lived space, where survival is felt in every passage.
Embroidered Texts:
● CLUSTERED VESSEL FORMATION
● Case 03 West Shoal Incident
● Capsized tagged missing
● POTENTIAL UNDERWATER DRONE ACTIVITY
● VESSEL SWARMING
● WHO REMEMBERS?
● Which boats can return home?
● Walang bagyo, pero tumaob kami sa sigalot.
—-- (There was no storm, yet we capsized in conflict.)
● Itinapon kami sa dagat ng hindi namin laban.
—---(We were cast into a sea that was not our fight.)
Embroidered Texts:
● CLUSTERED VESSEL FORMATION
● Case 03 West Shoal Incident
● Capsized tagged missing
● POTENTIAL UNDERWATER DRONE ACTIVITY
● VESSEL SWARMING
● WHO REMEMBERS?
● Which boats can return home?
● Walang bagyo, pero tumaob kami sa sigalot.
—-- (There was no storm, yet we capsized in conflict.)
● Itinapon kami sa dagat ng hindi namin laban.
—---(We were cast into a sea that was not our fight.)