Falling Up

Intellectual and creative labor has increasingly become precarious, often depleted, and shouldered by individuals as a self-imposed responsibility. Taking the tension between creative exhaustion and everyday demands as its starting point, this exhibition seeks to explore how one might situate individual life and inner spiritual aspirations amid social norms and institutional pressures. It features works by eight artists from various stages of their careers, including newly commissioned artworks created specifically in response to the exhibition’s theme. This exhibition is curated by independent curator Leo Li Chen.

The title “Falling Up” is drawn from the eponymous poem by children’s literature author Shel Silverstein. A body that ought to descend instead rises skyward; the “fall” of order and the “ascent” of will create a paradoxical yet compelling tension. This exhibition takes that tension and extends it into a broader set of inquiries: when spiritual life is suppressed or constrained, the body’s exertion ceases to function merely as an act of resistance and instead becomes the sole pathway towards the mind—a form of respite under passivity. Control and its loss, across mind and the emotions, unfold in alternation. This dynamic constitutes not only a demanding exercise in tolerance and consensus but also an ongoing mechanism of negotiation between the individual and the external world. Amid the numbness and evasions of everyday life, the question remains whether we can still grasp the force that sustains us and retain the courage to expose ourselves.

The narrative of the exhibition revolves around the paradox between the ideal life and the predicaments of reality. They are not strictly opposing forces but rather co-exist within artistic practice in a shared state of suspension. The deepest predicaments rarely present themselves in overtly tragic forms; instead, they may be disguised beneath a refined veneer—where sweetness masks bitterness, and comfort dulls pain. Paradoxically, we rely on this veneer to sustain our functioning, even as we must remain vigilant lest it become a new form of enclosure. More crucially, an unexamined tendency toward negation may have already slipped into a posture more dangerous than mere powerlessness. Falling is another name for rising; they both occupy an unresolved expanse.

Artist

Isaac Chong Wai

Ishu Han

Kanthy Peng

Tao Hui

Wang Xiya

Xin Yunpeng

 Zhang Yibei

Zhu Yu