A drop cycling through Kaohsiung across decades: once falling through factory smoke, carrying industrial waste past fishermen; now moving through cleaner channels where workers who once avoided the river's smell return to its banks; the same water that passed through treatment plants now hosts a diversity of plankton; carrying a question about tomorrow, with each ripple, toward the sea.

Watershed (Tough Love) is the first in a series of works examining rivers and their (former) estuaries. This installation explores how water connects all living systems by following a single drop. Water descends through transparent plates—representing its passage through time, ecosystems, and bodies—before landing on specially treated fabrics. As water meets fabric, colours transform, mirroring environmental changes: from industrial contamination to ongoing restoration efforts.

Surrounding visitors is a soundscape of underwater recordings from the Love River—the clicking of shrimp, the movement of fish, the subtle vibrations of current—making audible what typically remains beneath the surface.

The installation reveals that every drop contains multitudes—microscopic life, chemical histories, and future possibilities. Just as the Love River has flowed through Kaohsiung's changing identity, water flows through all bodies, carrying both our environmental choices and their consequences. 

Special thanks to PIER-2 Art Center, Professor Yuan-Pin Chang (National Sun Yat-Sen University), Jari Deelstra, the team of PlanktoScope and Sébastien Robert.