GROUP EXHIBITION

Drawing on classical traditions, Wendi Yan and Zhou Jiangnan rework materials from the past to tell stories about the present. Yan studies the history of science, uncovering forgotten strands of knowledge and using digital media to construct speculative systems of understanding. Zhou returns to classical imagery, removing it from its original context and reinterpreting it for contemporary audiences. By loosening the ties between images, historical records, and the contexts that once defined them, both artists turn motifs from the past into compelling contemporary narratives, unsettling the idea of time as a linear progression.

Through fictional narratives, Chen Sixin and Meng Zhou explore relationships between human and nonhuman beings in imagined worlds. Chen envisions possibilities beyond the present, drawing on the visual language of vintage comics and science-fiction covers. In his vivid imagery, Chen explores a fractured sense of self and inner turmoil and imagines ways to break free from existing systems. Meng turns inward to examine the self, consciousness, and existence, expanding the boundaries of inner experience. Both artists leave their narratives open-ended, letting questions emerge through images and situations shaped by fantasy and speculation.

Turning from imagined worlds to life and perception, Qin Shanjun and Liu Shunjia each probe vitality in distinct ways. Qin creates installations using succulents, volcanic rock, and ceramic planters to evoke life held in suspension. With their roots exposed, as they would be in transit, the plants rest on volcanic stones; the plants and stones are then packed together in courier bags. The plants retain their instinct to grow, but have no soil in which to put down roots. As they move through networks of commerce, living things are packaged, shipped, and repeatedly displaced, never quite able to settle. They reach upward, yet have nowhere to anchor themselves. Liu Shunjia, by contrast, works primarily with lacquer, drawing on the material’s own vitality and its cultural resonance in East Asia. Reflections on the course of life and insights gained through personal experience inform her work. Rather than depicting particular plants, she evokes the ways life unfolds in nature as a means of turning perception inward.

These distinct lines of inquiry—past and future, inward and outward, life and perception—converge here. Together, the six artists ask: when time is no longer defined by inherited frameworks, how might we rethink our relationships with ourselves, with the things around us, and with our environment? In this interval of uncertainty, the exhibition opens up new ways of perceiving and reflecting on the present.