MA Curatorial Practice presents "Reaching Into Transformation / 渡," curated by program fellow Xinchen Du.

We are always in need of mutual transformation. Text, meaning, sound, emotion, our conscious and unconscious attention – all lead us to transformations and their consequences. But what is lost in the process of change and what is added? When is the process of transformation a success and when is it a failure? Perhaps key to these questions are matters of one's own generation, of childhood memories, of the passage of time, even of one's own national identity, even our whims in the face of rules and order.

This exhibition, with its English title "Reaching into Transformation" and its Chinese title “渡” (dù), which means the transition from one place to another, and also an interim, suggests timeliness. But timeliness not in the sense of quickness, not leaps in time. Instead, the exhibition presents artists whose works embody linear processes, stages of transformation, inclusive of waiting and expectations, vacillations, the intrigues of discovery over the duration of a work's iterative transitions toward completion.

Asuka Goto, Furen Dai, Guo Chenghui and MengMeng, Hanna Margetson-Rushmore, Remijon Pronja and Moon ChaeWon are the participating artists. Their works all reflect transformation through the translation of languages, the revisiting of old memories, the change in attitudes from one generation to the next, the struggle of constructing identity.

Asuka Goto's Lost in Translation is not only a translation of words but also a change in mood between families.

Furen Dai's Message through Generations bears directly on the nuanced shifts between generations. Dai’s other work, A is for America, deconstructs the original alphabet which is basically made for children and reconstructs it with political aspect of words to reflect the image and the idea that this government wants to emphasis and convey to the world.

Guo Chenghui and MengMeng's work, Scenery of Suitcases, traces a relationship between found objects, the external world and the self.

Hanna Margetson-Rushmore’s panel painting, The Road to Unconscious, is concerned with transformation in the sense of material reactions, while Moon ChaeWon's "Untitled" series delves into the symbolic realm of language and signs and the breaking of demonstrative pat-terns.

Finally, Remijon Pronja's UNTITLED IN ALLEGRO MODERATO represents his perception of cultural identity and the cyclical nature of self-understanding.

The cumulative influence of these works broadens our notions of what transformation means and leads us toward a reconsideration of self-determination and the power of our own agency.

Exhibition

Reaching Into Transformation / 渡

Reception