MA Curatorial Practice and CP Projects Space presents "Vibrations of Dust," an exhibition curated by Yindi Chen, a student in the program, and featuring work by Alchemyverse (Bicheng Liang and Yixuan Shao), Shuyi Cao and Kees van Leeuwen.

Living in an epoch of disturbed landscapes and collapsing ecosystems requires us to rethink the entanglement between humans and nature and expand our perception beyond the human scale of space and time. Focusing on subtle processes of change and the long duration of geological activity, "Vibrations of Dust" opens up narratives concerning overlooked matters: silent stones, unnoticed frequencies and derelict shelters, examining how humans, nonhumans and environments relate to and affect one another. The artists transform their perceptions of working on land into both visual and auditory experiences in the exhibition, reflecting upon the cycle of life and decay.

The artist collective Alchemyverse (Bicheng Liang and Yixuan Shao) creates haptic encounters between materials that transmit the unheard frequencies into tangible vibrations. The tottering structure of their installation is supported by wood and rocks, emphasizing the tension between balance and precarity; topographic maps are juxtaposed with cyanotypes of natural landscapes, intertwining different spatial and temporal scales.

Shuyi Cao fabulates the entangled relation of living and non-living in A Vast Shimmer Spans All (2022). The video work unfolds narratives of evolution and extinction, blurring timelines in the microscopic world and the virtual environment. Her glazed stoneware sculptures combine organic and inorganic materials—fragments of fossil wood and powder of oxidized metal, merging natural and artificial processes.

Kees van Leeuwen’s photographs document his extensive research on nuclear bunkers. These concrete blocks are unchanging, in contrast with the seasons around them in continual flux. As the bunkers prevent vibrations and provide a powerful sense of enclosure, they alter our sensory relation to space, of which only silence and isolation remain. The residues of geopolitical conflicts reveal human disturbances of landscapes and remind us of the possible planetary catastrophe.

"Vibrations of Dust" invites us to reconsider the experience of living in a damaged world, to perceive time on a geological scale and to correlate human life with histories of the planet.

Exhibition

Vibrations of Dust

MA Curatorial Practice

Reception