Zijun Zhao, I Chin Sung, Yike Li: A Lure, A Lament

The Chinese ‘gui’ [鬼] embodies a distinct aura that often eludes translation. Within the grip of ‘gui’, spirits and ghosts do not isolate into a transcendental alternative land. They are not merely uncanny dead, or omnipotent immortal, but ancestral presences woven into peculiar geographies, rituals, and lifeways. ‘Gui’ coexists with living human beings. It’s the extraordinary that birthed and mutated from the ordinaries. They are the eerily-tinged us.

In Chinese mythological literature, the spiritual and ghostly are often imbued with an allure of beguiling femininity. Is it but a figment of male literati, a lingering shadow of patriarchy? Or rather, the feminine ‘gui’ is sensed as an unruly eros that disrupts, shatters, and flirts with the masculine stagnancy. ‘Gui’ is an erotic relation between the dualities in ourselves.

This exhibition “A Lure, A Lament”, featuring Mosaz, I Chin Sung, and Yike Li, immerses the audience in the inescapable intimacy of ‘gui’ through each artist’s subtle expressivity. The lure is here presented as a unique attention evoked by the spiritual within you—your entwined yearnings, your remorseful fantasies. The archaic exudes its aroma through the gestural plays on papers, carving boards, and the interweaving pigments. An ambience is all over the place. It nearly sustains a ritual, a silent prayer to the past, a lamentation for ancestors within the hush of old tales.