Kexun Zhang
How Soft You Want It
We Used To Kneel In The Dirt
Open Your Eyes Underwater
CV
Open Your Eyes Underwater
Jordan Deal, Nazanin Noroozi, Shen Xin, Sunny Moxin Chen
Curated by Kexun Zhang
In a time in which authoritarian regimes all over the world have taken power, and ignorance nationalism is on the rise, human rights and equitable societies across the globe are increasingly jeopardized. Open Your Eyes Underwater examines 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. This exhibition seeks to bring lost political ideals back to the surface, and open the possibilities of recognition and change.
Through paintings and sculptures, Sunny Moxin Chen explores the alienation of identity within the collision of different values. 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 by discussing symptoms of social conditionings. Jordan Deal challenges the performative role of the body and identity as it adapts to different social spaces in their performance. Through the eyes of four artists, the exhibition examines the struggle between individual will and the dramatic shift in government policies.
press release
Installation shots at MACP Space, NY