"Palm trees" are steeped in imagery tied to warmth and tropical landscapes, but their symbolic weight is shifting. What happens when palms move northward? "Palms Blow North" explores this phenomenon as an echo of our climate’s flux—a poignant metaphor for migration, transformation, and resilience.

Beyond their evocative imagery, palms have long been vital contributors to human and ecological systems. Their fruits, oils, and fibres sustain communities, while their towering forms provide shelter and shape ecosystems. These trees embody both abundance and adaptability, standing as markers of stability and harbingers of change. Lau’s exhibition uses the palm’s symbolic and material generosity as a lens to examine the interconnection between natural and human systems.

The exhibition brings together sculptural installations and participatory works that centre the palm as both subject and material. In "Topologies of Laces" (2024), the natural lattice of the Bismarckia nobilis flowering stalks becomes the foundation of an installation exploring movement and permeability. Delicate interplays of light and form reflect the porous boundaries between the human self and the non-human, inviting visitors to move through the space, activating subtle changes in their surroundings.

"Storms in Our Asymmetry" (2024), a collaboration with Teng Kee Wee, threads the coconut palm into a robotic choreography with geomagnetic forces. The installation reflects the palm’s visual and spatial fluidity, drawing inspiration from the unseen currents of the Earth’s magnetic field and the cosmic rhythms of solar cycles.

Further deepening the exhibition’s inquiry, "Wayfinding in the Absent Present" (2024) unfolds as a mapping workshop that explores the entanglement of ecological systems and shared human knowledge. Using charcoal and paper, participants trace connections between migratory flows and collective memory. The work, developed with -ologies Collective, reimagines navigation as an act of creation, attuned to the magnetic pull of the North.

Throughout the duration of "Palms Blow North", the exhibition space becomes a performative site where movement, light, and texture converge. Visitors are invited to engage with a gallery that is both reflective and participatory, a space to “be a palm, leave your mark, and navigate to your north". "Topologies of Laces"(2024) is an encroaching installation of the inflorescence of the Bismarckia nobilis—at times activated by bodily movements and art performances. The Bismarck Palms are dioecious and produce pendent, interfoliar inflorescence of brown flowers. Their natural lattice occurs in the pedicle or female flowering stalks. The artwork is installed in the white cube and welcomes visitor interference. Topologies laces the visual form of the palm with the permeability of the human self and the non-human as diaphanous agents within spaces of social and urban complexes.

"Storms in our asymmetry" (2024) in collaboration with Teng Kee Wee threads the coconut palm in a robotic tango with earth currents induced by variations in the Earth's magnetic field. The installation demonstrates the palm’s visuality and spatiality swayed by the late descending phase of the sunspot cycle characterised by the high frequencies of recurrent geomagnetic storms.

The exhibition also navigates social collectivity. "Wayfinding in the absent present" (2024) is a workshop that activates mind-mapping as a spatial and socio-ecological exercise. The charcoal and the paper echoes material affinity to the palm. Long time collaborators from the Fertile Art Refinery: -ologies collective come together to navigate crowd-sourced building of knowledge systems on the cosmos and non-earthly environments.

During the duration of the art exhibition, "Palms Blow north", Hearth at Art Outreach becomes a performative space where visitors can reinterpret the white cube. Be a palm, leave your mark, and navigate to your north.