In the exhibition In-Between beings, Te-Mao Lee contemplates the question of existence through a series of video works that gaze toward a future two thousand years from now. Along Taiwan’s east coast, tectonic forces have gradually uplifted ancient coastal settlements to elevated sites—prehistoric traces now suspended above sea level—revealing that ancient peoples once lived by the sea. This vertical dimension of spacetime prompts a descent 20 meters below today’s sea level, where the artist explores a yet-to-arrive mode of being through the materiality of seabed sand.

By positioning AI as a viewer and a thinker, the work reveals its fluid cognition as it views and misreads underwater images, generating text that flows like a stream of consciousness. The works delineate a temporary and indeterminate “in-between state of being,” probing the shifting boundaries co-inhabited by humans, landscapes, and artificial intelligence.

This exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture (MOC) of Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO). Organized in partnership with International Arts and Artists.

Te-Mao Lee is an artist and curator from Taiwan. His works often embody a sensuous experience shaped by subtractive thinking and deep reflection. He explores essential questions and frequently weaves connections across diverse fields such as physics, philosophy, and art. His works—such as Gravitational Waves, which responds to general relativity; Waves, Small Stones, and Mr. Palomar, unfolding from a seaside desk; and Bursting, addressing the highly ordered social structures of the Netherlands—reflect his profound observation and critical thinking. As a curator, he has organized exhibitions such as Treasure Hill Light Festival 2018, Fault Line Art Festival, When You Read a Wave, and At This Moment. In 2019, he founded Ghihak Art Lab, grounded in the principle of “art first.”

I develop my work conceptually, without limitation to any specific medium. Since 2016, I have been creating with video and gradually expanded into installation, sound, performance, and curatorial practice. I value the creative experience in art: true creativity always opens up a space beyond existing knowledge, experience, and thought—this is my aim as an artist.

In this exhibition, In-Between beings, I draw from the prehistoric sites in the mountains of Hualien, Taiwan, where I live. These sites were originally coastal settlements, uplifted by tectonic forces over time. Seeking to explore a new kind of creativity, I learned to dive and descended 20 meters beneath the sea surface, attempting to connect the present with a future two thousand years ahead. I used seabed sand to create ecosystem jars and invited AI to watch the video, which then generated murmured, self-directed questions and responses—unfolding the potential of a digital thinker reaching toward the future.

THE UNREACHED SURFACE

2025
Single-channel video, glass, ecological bottle

In prehistoric times, before the invention of writing, only durable materials such as stone tools, pottery, and bones were left behind at archaeological sites. The absence of written records renders much of prehistory a mystery. Prehistoric people fired earth into vessels, transforming soil into containers for daily life. Extending this act of transformation, The Unreached Surface features a group of divers descending 20 meters below sea level to collect non-cohesive seabed sand. Through high-temperature melting, the sand is transformed into glass and then blown into sealed ecological bottles.

Each bottle contains a self-sustaining micro-ecosystem. Through the glass surface, one can observe the circulation of plants, air, and water. Yet to touch anything inside would require breaking the vessel—destroying its delicate, closed equilibrium.

The seabed sand symbolizes a potential future surface of the Earth. In the artwork, it appears in a transparent form—visible, yet unreachable. The ecological bottle is both a living object and a temporal container inaccessible to intervention. It holds not just moisture and plants, but also a speculative future in which this sand becomes land two thousand years from now. The work constructs a space of viewing, approaching, and loss—echoing Deleuze’s idea of the fold-crystal: a progression of time, crystallized into an experience that is perceivable yet impenetrable.

45 MINUTES

2025
Single-channel video

To avoid excessive nitrogen absorption in the blood, the safe bottom time limit (No-Decompression Limit, NDL) for a scuba diver at 20 meters depth is 45 minutes. The filming process of this work fully utilized this 45-minute safe bottom time before entering the decompression phase.

The piece captures a dreamlike, beautiful scene, continuously recording the 20-meter-thick seawater and the rhythmic bubbles of breathing, subtly conveying the safety limits humans face when reaching this depth.

WHERE THOUGHT NEVER LANDS

2025
Single-channel video, large language model, DoS audio data transmission

Where Thought Never Lands was filmed on a seabed 20 meters below the surface, where ocean currents etch folds into the sand, forming an alien landscape reminiscent of a desert or the surface of Mars. The camera moves slowly, as if in search of something.

In prehistoric times, humans had language but no writing. The subtitles in this video are generated by the large language model Ollama, which emits them as sound frequencies via DoS (data over sound). Through watching the footage, Ollama begins a stream of self-directed questions—an endless internal monologue that drifts through the unfamiliar seabed, enacting a form of digital thought in motion.

Ollama runs on a closed-system computer, disconnected from any network. Without external input, it resembles a thinker trapped within its own mind. Each time the video loops, Ollama rereads the sentences it previously generated, reflects anew, and continues producing the next round of subtitles. Operating within the constraints of a standalone system, it also tests the boundaries of digital thought. Faced with the 20-meter-deep seafloor, a future two thousand years ahead, and the flow of cinematic time, is the language model’s thinking truly confined—or is it stirring toward an as-yet-unknown edge of consciousness?

THE MISFIT NAMES

2025
Two-channel video, real-time object detection system, large language model

The AI real-time object detection system YOLO (You Only Look Once) watches a soothing aquarium scene together with the audience, featuring coral, sea anemones, and schools of fish. Although the imagery appears familiar and comforting, it represents an environment that YOLO cannot accurately comprehend. The footage was filmed underwater, resembling a tranquil aquarium, yet it holds the true depth and life of the ocean.

In the work, YOLO has only received limited object recognition training. Under unusually loose detection conditions, when it observes underwater creatures for the first time, it might misidentify a fish as a frisbee or interpret coral as broccoli. These “misjudgments,” when passed on to a large language model for sentence generation, create a layered dialectical relationship between the object, limited perceptual capacity, and mistaken judgment—unfolding an alternative form of narrative.

Exhibition Opening and Reception

Friday, September 5, 2025
VIP and Member Reception, 5 to 6 pm (register)
Opening reception (general public) 6 to 8 p.m

In the exhibition In-Between beings, Te-Mao Lee contemplates the question of existence through a series of video works that gaze toward a future two thousand years from now. Along Taiwan’s east coast, tectonic forces have gradually uplifted ancient coastal settlements to elevated sites—prehistoric traces now suspended above sea level—revealing that ancient peoples once lived by the sea. This vertical dimension of spacetime prompts a descent 20 meters below today’s sea level, where the artist explores a yet-to-arrive mode of being through the materiality of seabed sand.

A Conversation with Te-Mao Lee and Mia Yinxing Liu

Saturday, September 6, 1 pm
Location: IA&A at Hillyer, 9 Hillyer Ct NW

Organized in conjunction with the exhibition titled In-Between beings, Te-Mao Lee will be joined by Mia Yinxing Liu to discuss the concepts, research, and working methods, including the integration of artificial intelligence that informs his work. Mia Yinxing Liu, is currently an Assistant Professor of the History of Art at John Hopkins University, and a scholar of modern and contemporary Chinese art and media culture. Her research focuses on how traditions are constructed, reconfigured, and reinvented in different social and political contexts and in diverse media in modern China. Select the link below to learn more.

Mia Yinxing Liu

In-Between Sounds

September 13, 7:15 to 9:15 pm

Join us for a special musical performance featuring Huai-En Tsai (trombone), Shu-Ting Yao (violin), and Wan-Chi Su (piano) who will perform music inspired by the exhibition by Te-Mao Lee titled In-Between beings. This program is organized in conjunction with Art All Night, a citywide arts event. Visit Art All Night to learn more.

Location: IA&A at Hillyer, 9 Hillyer Ct NW

Conversation with Te-Mao Lee and Hsien-Yu Cheng

Saturday, September 20, 1 pm
Online conversation

As part of the exhibition In-Between beings, featured artist Te-Mao Lee will be joined by Hsien-Yu Cheng to discuss some of the underlying concepts in the exhibition and how the work connects to the global discussion about “being” in the contemporary art world.

Join the Program