Exhibition

MA Curatorial Practice presents “Open Your Eyes Underwater,” curated by MA Curatorial Practice student Kexun Zhang. In a time in which authoritarian regimes all over the world have taken power, and patriotism and nationalism are on the rise, human rights and equitable societies across the globe are increasingly jeopardized and violated. This exhibition examines the struggle between individual will and this dramatic shift in government policies and radical nationalist sentiments, addressing these concerns through the eyes of five artists. 

Through paintings and sculptures, Sunny Moxin Chen explores the alienation of identity within the collision of different values. Qiong Zhang investigates China's pain and despair brought on by government policies in her performances, while Jordan Deal challenges the performative role of the body and identity as it adapts to different social spaces in That time I thought we were incubating together (2018). Combining computer graphics and elements from nature, Nazanin Noroozi questions collective memory and reflects on displacement in her multi-media works. Shen Xin explores the notion of ethnicity and belonging in their conversation with three guest artists. Discussing around symptoms of social conditionings, they offer a sense of care and communion. 

“Open Your Eyes Underwater” intends to add to the conversation about political forms of exclusion and oppression and the alienation they bring. In this sense, to open one’s eyes underwater is a moment of discomfort and disorientation that leads to reorientation, to seeing clearly again. The exhibition seeks to bring lost political ideals back to the surface toward the possibilities of recognition and change.