Tan Mu’s Interwoven World: Between Submarine Cable and Ocean Waves

In Werner Herzog’s Lo and Behold, internet pioneer Ted Nelson recalls skimming his fingers across a lake as a child, watching ripples form, break apart, and rejoin — a fleeting vision of the universe as an ever-shifting web. Artist Tan Mu knows this sensation intimately. Raised in Yantai, Shandong, she grew up in and around the water — swimming, sailing, windsurfing – before discovering freediving in 2019. At 10 metres below, she achieves neutral buoyancy: light refracted above, infinite darkness below, silence all around. In that space, time and scale dissolve, and perception shifts.

This intimacy with the ocean led her to the hidden systems that run through it: submarine fiber-optic cables, the fragile yet vital infrastructure that carries the world’s information. The 2022 Tonga eruption, which severed a key cable, sparked her Signal series — oil paintings that reimagine these networks as “digital constellations,” fusing planetary systems with human histories, microstructures with global scale.

Following its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024, Signal now arrives at BEK Forum (Büro für experimentelle Kunst) in Vienna, Austria. Five major works anchor the show, alongside an artist talk, a new publication, and Everything on the Line – a musical performance by harpist Sophie Steiner that interprets Mu’s cable maps as graphic notation.

We sat down with the artist to talk about her deep-sea inspirations, the poetics of technology, and how the unseen infrastructures beneath our oceans shape the way we live, connect, and remember.

Yiren Shen: You grew up by the sea and have deepened your connection with the ocean in recent years through freediving. How has this experience impacted your life?

Tan Mu: The film The Big Blue captures my current state of mind. After immersing myself in the ocean, being on land now feels like a temporary interlude. When I dive in different locations, the language and food onshore vary, but underwater, my experience remains consistent—it always feels like coming home.

A freediving session typically lasts about two minutes. Though brief, it encompasses a profound transformation of both body and mind—like a journey from birth to death. The deep sea can evoke fear, triggering a primal need for air. At depths beyond 30 meters, my body enters a state of hypoxia, yet I must summon the strength to ascend. Every movement consumes oxygen, so I have to focus on breath control and mental discipline. This process forces me to confront fear, remain curious, explore, and connect with my surroundings and myself.

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Full article at 10 Magazine.