Para Site is delighted to present ‘Strange Strangers’ as the second exhibition in its new tenth-floor annex. The duo exhibition curated by Cusson Cheng will showcase commissioned and existing sculptures by New York-based Chinese artist Shuyi Cao and Hong Kong artist Leelee Chan.
Taking the concept of ‘strange strangers’, which philosopher and ecologist Timothy Morton defines as ambiguous beings that study and challenge the paradox and fissures of identity, the two artists trace the flows and formative processes of matter to envision a queer ecology where one may relate to a collective of beings in a planetary approach. Cao’s stoneware, glass, and resin works unravel intimacies and kinships across a myriad networked life forms, summoning ontologies that wander between substances, residues, and impurities. Meanwhile, Chan’s enigmatic sculptures incorporate and transform urban detritus, ancient artefacts, as well as natural and industrial material to accentuate the in-becoming nature of materials and to experiment with logic and patterns beyond an anthropocentric worldview. Despite distinct formal presentations and differing approaches to materiality, the artists’ creations, including site-specific spatial interventions, coexist in the exhibition space as an ecosystem that transcends binaries of organic and inorganic, primordial and advanced.
The exhibition visual identity created by London-based Hong Kong designer Fibi Kung makes use of 3D renderings that mirror the texture and motifs of the sculptures on view, visualising manifold modes of ecological thinking. In addition, there is also an olfactory experience with three scents provided by over the course of the six-week exhibition period; the change of scent every two weeks activates three distinct viewing experiences vis-a-vis how one relates to and interacts with the other ‘life forms’ in the exhibition environment. Ultimately, ‘Strange Strangers’ aims to guide the audience through a transformed ecology that is uncannily devoid of stricture, centres, or even definitions.
Fragrance Sponsor
