Image Design: Chen, Ching-Yuan

[Work in Progress] Ningyo Come / Tsunami Go
Date: 18 July 2025 (Friday)
Time: 17:50 (doors open) / 18:00 (show starts)
Venue: Taki Plaza, 5F, Ueno Campus, Tokyo University of the Arts
Running time: approx. 15 minutes
*Free entry, no reservation required, come and go as you please.

We are pleased to announce an exhibition and performance by Betty Apple, a Taiwanese artist currently in residence at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

In 2025, Japanese manga artist Tatsuki Yamashita’s book Watashi ga Mita Mirai (What I Saw in the Future), which depicts a catastrophic tsunami, became a topic of conversation on social media. Many people became anxious about the ‘day’ (5 July) depicted in the book, and over 190,000 people tuned in to the earthquake alert live stream on YouTube, where a strange countdown ritual began.

Inspired by this social phenomenon, Betty Apple has held a workshop based on the Japanese half-human, half-fish monster Amabie and visited the site of the Niigata mermaid legend. Inspired by the tragic tale of a woman who swam from Sado Island to reunite with her lover, Betty Apple has created a multimedia artwork using sound, video, and photography. The mermaid couldn’t speak, but she tried to make sounds. Even though she couldn’t understand human prophecy, she was repeatedly referenced in stories about disasters. In this performance, Betty Apple will deconstruct the formation of words through noise, sound, and meaning. This unique event, where prophecy, myth, disaster, and landscape intersect, is not to be missed!

Betty Apple
Born in 1986, in Taiwan. Betty Apple is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance art, sound art, electronic music, DJing, and new media. Centering her practice on body politics and performance, she integrates art, visuals, live streaming, and electronic music. Her inspiration stems from the millennial experience in postcolonial Taiwan and is deeply influenced by rave culture, queer theory, posthuman contexts, and Taiwanese underground culture. By appropriating local objects and kitsch culture, she incorporates industrially-produced symbols of erotica (such as vibrators, lingerie, and silicone breasts) into her performances. Through the dynamic interplay between the body and objects, she creates chaotic and hysterical “magical realist narratives.” Recently, she has used the “mermaid” as a performance symbol to explore the fluidity of techno-mysticism.

Her major performances include Mermaid Awaking Club (Copenhagen, 2023), the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts (Australia, 2025), Wonderfruit Festival (Thailand, 2024), Luxembourg Art Week Opening (2023), and the Jogja Biennale (Indonesia, 2019). She has also participated in Nuit Blanche Taipei (2020, 2022) and the Taipei Arts Festival (2018, 2020, 2023). Her work Signals From The Future was featured in Libération (France). Additionally, she has contributed sound design for JENN LEE’s fashion shows (2023, 2024) and theatrical works such as New Paradise of Silent Island.
https://bettyapple.art/