The Dream Cave
Curated by Wanhang Chao
Artists: Mosa (Zijun Zhao), Yichi Zhang
February 9 - February 16, 2022
The Dream Cave attempts to create a space as absurd and yet unified as Alice in Wonderland, featuring works by two artists whose works mingle profound self-analysis with images evoking the landscape of dreams. The sense of instability, of bodily angst and fantasy, of alienation and intimacy in these works reflects the dread and longing touching us in the time of the pandemic.
Mosa (Zijun Zhao) uses ink, colored pencils and pastels on paper in an old-fashioned style to bring to life the fantasy of mental chaos, containing intricate lines and over-saturated but well-arranged details, with plants and animals in wild morphological forms and erotically charged images of women as her main subjects. Yichi Zhang, also uses traditional painting materials, creating flattened human figures and mask-like faces that suggest dreamlike states of psychological distortion. Along with paintings, Zhang presents mixed-material sculptures.
Dreams can reflect "fragments of the self" beyond daily life because of their dissociation and randomness. The Dream Cave invites visitors to meet, co-channel and reflect on these ghosts of the mind living in the dimension of the dreamworld that each of us inhabits and all of us share.