Whether ocean, strait or stream, water is not merely a connector of lands, but a living presence that moves with memory and labour, carrying traces of migrations, trade, rituals and kinship. Similarly, textile is not only a cultural artefact, but also a mobile, tactile archive threaded with the everyday, the sacred and the collective.

Tidal Weavers unfolds as a process and generative space of shared memory and interwoven knowledge. Central to it is an artist exchange between grassroots organisations across South China Sea to cultivate mutual learning and long-term collaboration. Artists, weavers, researchers and community members dwell and work together in immersive settings. Through conversations, shared meals, daily routines and collaborative making, friendships grow and shape the artworks as much as the materials themselves.

The project offers an ecology of stories, motifs and rhythms that respond to the specificity of place and the generosity of human encounter, emphasising slowness, listening and reciprocity as strategies of artistic and social engagement. It honours people, water, land and textile alike – as carriers of life, of memory, and of the deep ties that bind people across distance.