Alan Michelson’s practice is informed by the retrieval of repressed histories and the impact of colonialism on Indigenous peoples and nature. In Midden 2021, he pays homage to the ancestral Lenape homelands that include present-day New York, and to its bounty of oysters. Ancient shell mounds once dotted the landscape, testifying to the natural abundance of the waters and presence of Indigenous people. Michelson shot this video along two waterways in New York dramatically changed by industrialisation and pollution. The soundtrack is a recording of the Delaware Skin Dance (Gane’ whae’), entrusted to the artist’s Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) ancestors by the Lenape. For the 14th Gwangju Biennale, the oyster shells have been sourced from Tong Yeong, a Korean city known for its oyster cultivation. After the exhibition, the shells will be returned to be used in local recycling education programmes. More than a memorial to the cultural and ecological practices destroyed by colonisation, Midden reaffirms the survivance of nature and Indigenous people.