Container (2021) is a painting by Tan Mu, based on photographs taken on a New Jersey highway. Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, the artwork reflects the global supply chain and transportation slowdowns that led to widespread shortages and shifts in consumption patterns. The pandemic’s mandates and restrictions caused economic stagnation, with labor shortages leaving goods stranded at shipping ports. A global chip shortage further exacerbated the crisis, particularly in the automotive and electronics industries. The long-term effects of this crisis continue to impact food security, culminating in issues like the 2022 food crisis. These reflections prompted Tan Mu to explore the intersections of global trade, the exchange of goods, and personal memory. The multicolored shipping containers in the painting are not merely vessels for transporting items—they are carriers of information and technology. Tan Mu’s creative process began with the pandemic’s impact on global trade and gradually expanded to examine how globalization profoundly affects personal lives and emotions. These impacts manifest not only in material exchanges but also in the ways people stay connected through technology and information, forming emotional ties and sustaining cultural continuity.

Q: What prompted you to focus on the container as something that carries both goods and information?

Tan Mu: Growing up in Yantai, a major port city, I was naturally exposed to cargo transport and container logistics, partly because of my parents’ professions. Images of ships being loaded and containers moving in and out of the harbor became part of my childhood visual memory. These early impressions stayed with me and later became deeply connected to my artistic practice. As my work evolved, those memories began to intersect with my interest in global logistics and information exchange.

In my daily life today, I frequently rely on maritime shipping to transport artworks and materials across borders, which makes me not only an observer of global trade but also a participant in it. This painting emerged directly from that lived experience. To better understand the visual language of containers, I contacted my regular shipping company to access promotional stock images and also took my own photographs. The painting is based on one of these images, transforming something ordinary and functional from my daily routine into an artistic subject. Through this work, I aim to explore the intersections of global trade, circulation, and personal memory, while inviting viewers to consider how vast logistical systems quietly shape individual lives.

Q: Does this subject have a deeper connection to your personal history?

Tan Mu: Beyond my long-standing interest in maritime trade and transmission, this work is deeply rooted in my family history. My maternal great-grandfather was a maritime trader during the Republican era, spending much of his life traveling between China and Korea. His work involved not only the exchange of goods but also the movement of culture and ideas. During World War II, his journeys were interrupted, and he was forced to remain in Korea, where he became part of the overseas Chinese community before eventually returning to China later in life.

This transnational experience shaped my family’s identity and instilled in me a sensitivity to movement, displacement, and cultural exchange. His story made me aware of how goods, people, and ideas continuously circulate across borders. In my work, containers become symbols of these journeys. They are not simply industrial objects but carriers of memory, history, and connection. Through them, I reflect on how personal narratives are embedded within larger global systems and how these systems span generations.

Q: How do you understand the information and culture carried by containers, beyond the physical goods themselves?

Tan Mu: I see shipping containers not only as tools for transporting goods, but also as vessels for information. On a practical level, they carry essential components such as chips and electronic equipment, which are critical to technological development. When the movement of these containers is disrupted, the impact extends far beyond logistics. This became especially visible during the pandemic, when global supply chains slowed or stopped, affecting technological progress and daily life. That disruption made me acutely aware of how closely transportation, communication, and innovation are connected.

At the same time, containers also carry emotional and cultural weight. Trade is not only an economic exchange but a reflection of how people remain connected across distance through technology and information. The global circulation of goods shapes personal experiences, relationships, and emotions. This idea connects closely to my ongoing interest in the question of how information can endure over long periods of time. In works such as my Signal series, which examines undersea fiber-optic cables, I extend this inquiry into how information is transmitted and preserved. Through these explorations, containers become metaphors for continuity, memory, and the ways culture is carried forward through time.

Q: How did you approach these ideas in your composition?

Tan Mu: In the foreground of the painting, I placed a road based on a photograph I took while driving on a highway in New Jersey. The road functions both literally and symbolically as a pathway for transmission and movement. At the center of the composition, the containers are reduced to simplified rectangular blocks of color. By minimizing detail, I wanted to shift attention away from individual objects and toward their collective meaning.

These stacked forms resemble hard drives or storage units, suggesting metal shells that contain both physical cargo and digital information. Through abstraction, the containers become symbols rather than specific objects. This allows the painting to move beyond representation and focus on what these forms embody: systems of storage, circulation, and exchange that quietly support the flow of goods, data, and culture across the world.