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Press Release
Bandaged Moments
Curated by Xiaojing Zhu
Artists: Elaine Xuhong Chen, Kuan Hsieh, Hawu Juhye Lim, Sidian Liu, Silvia Muleo,
Chloe Scout Nix, Jiwon Rhie, Ruoxin Sun, Rebecca Xiangjie Wu, Chang Zhang
Tutu Gallery
July 27 - September 7, 2024
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The Soul has Bandaged moments -
When too appalled to stir -
She feels some ghastly Fright come up
And stop to look at her -
- Emily Dickinson
Tutu Gallery presents the group exhibition, Bandaged Moments, curated by Xiaojing Zhu, featuring ten New York City-based artists. Using various materials and applications across disciplines—from layered drawings on vellum paper to machine-engraved acrylic panels and kinetic sculptures—each artist offers a fragment of their inner turmoil within a homescape. An attempt to bring to the senses those unspeakable conflicts lurking in the family bond, this exhibition counts the scores waiting for a settlement, the quarrels that became silent, speckles of hurt to brush off, and the perplexing tenderness in between.
Set against Tutu Gallery’s domestic space, Bandaged Moments deliberately crafts a semblance of familiarity while hinting at dysfunction. The artworks, mimicking furniture or everyday objects, are custom-built according to the architectural measurements of the gallery. These artists, hailing from diverse cultural backgrounds, converge in exploring different experiences of intimacy that fail to fit within widely propagated standards of love.
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The anthology started with specific figurative moments. Sidian Liu captures with her lens the complex relationship with her parents in these everyday scenes (At Home with My Family, 2021), depicting some harmonious moments in contrast to reality. These family portraits composed through optical illusions seem to compensate for her regrets. Alongside this family album, Rebecca Xiangjie Wu depicts two typical moments in Asian families: a mother hand-making dumplings (Wonton, 2023), and a child carefully carrying a bowl to the dining table (Untitled, 2023). These seemingly ordinary moments subtly reveal the power dynamics within a family, each highlighted against a solid-colored background as if placed under a spotlight. In the kitchen, Jiwon Rhie’s Undertow (2022) used a regular dining table fixed with a chair in the middle, akin to some kind of surreal modeling error, symbolizes the pressure associated with the traditional dinner scene in Asian families, where children must sit still amidst unexpected accusation from their parents. Nearby the layers of vellum paper paintings sway on the refrigerator (Quake series, 2022), alongside Hawu’s birthday cards (Everyday is My Birthday, 2021-2023). Despite the seemingly bright colors, these paintings are composed of chaotic lines that metaphorically signify the hardships, depression, and pain behind family histories.
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Intangible things can also become conduits of storytelling. The acrylic engraved window standing in the rear of the living room has its double-sided narration (Out of Sight, 2023). Raised in Beijing and based in New York, Ruoxin Sun’s memories of her childhood home are represented by the tree shadows framed by the window. This nostalgia extends to the bedroom’s wall mapping the urban demolitions in Zhejiang that have erased many of her familiar reference points. Zhang Chang’s sentiment to her grandmother hides in the fireplace: the artist holds a melting candle carved like a hand, bearing the burn of regret but unwilling to let go. These embracing touches are also one of the key topics in Chloe’s photographs, accompanied by borrowed trauma (2022), which is choreographed with stillness moments of mutual support and indiscernible tensions. Instead of directly addressing issues in kinship or intimacy, Silvia Muleo’s two works primarily revolve around distortion and light. The blurry figure's reflection lay in the tilted water surface of the stainless steel bowl (The mirror's color, 2023), and the refracted, distorted fingers in the crystal display (Tipping Point, 2022) serve as another metaphor for subtle occurrences out of the ordinary.
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Some modern allegories have been constructed by abstract objects. Under the kitchen cabinet, a multifaceted sculpture is rotating back and forth with a baking whisk, fruitlessly seeking an escape from its perpetual circular motion (Echoes of the Oars, 2024). This reinterpretation of household chores embodies Elaine's wisdom in the essence of repetition in our daily domestic labor. A foot hidden under the study desk standing on a wood sculpture trying to balance the body weigh (Shoji Screen, 2023)t: in the three-minute video performance, Kuan explores the shared pain and struggles faced by Taiwanese people in navigating their identity. Kuan confronts the unresolved historical complexities between communities and challenges the ambiguous status of Taiwan on the global stage.
From the subtle fractures of kinship disorder, pathological attachments, and the gendered imbalances in domestic labor, to the disenchantment that shadows marital intimacy after years of cohabitation, a fragile (im)balance of closeness reveals asynchronous and abnormal phenomena. The common sense of our daily lives becomes blindfolded, inviting the unveiling of the hidden dissonance within our sanctuaries.
Xiaojing Zhu
07.17.2024
Edited by April
For inquiries contact April: tutugallery.meow@gmail.com
Xiaojing Zhu is a curator with an interdisciplinary background in art history, design, and curatorial practice. Her work articulates the veiled narratives within sociopolitical frameworks, advocating for a comprehensive integration between art and public engagement. She delves into the intersections of geopolitics, gender consciousness, and the intertwined history of design under the forces of globalization.
