Jes Fan: Sites of Wounding: Chapter 1

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Empty Gallery is pleased to present Sites of Wounding: Chapter 1, New York and Hong Kong-based artist Jes Fan’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Originally trained in glassmaking, Fan’s practice in expanded sculpture merges a regard for form with a radically transdisciplinary approach to research and material experimentation- often incorporating unstable organic compounds such as sex hormones, skin pigments, and other biological agents. Although Fan’s earlier investigations focused largely on a granular deconstruction of gender essentialism, his recent work has turned away from anthropocentric concerns to engage with ecosystems and organisms beyond the human.

For Sites of Wounding, Fan returns to Hong Kong to research native species that generate precious materials through processes of contamina-tion, penetration, and incorporation. In a series of new works, he explores the affective resonance of these woundings as they relate to both the generative potential and the psychosomatic trauma of colonial subjectivity.