Opening Reception

Friday, 03.14.2025
5:00 – 9:00 p.m.

gallery hours

Thursday – Saturday
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

“The exhibition intends to explore and expose the linguistic and disruptive nature of order in art. By introducing “Polyphony”, a term from the realm of music and literature, into the medium of art, the exhibition will capture moments of polycentric coupling of multiple media and doctrines in the work.Amore intimate term will appear here together,Accent. Function, order, specific community, can these keywords from the original context of the word accent form a view of the accent of objects? As a result, the object has the narrative autonomy to liberate itself from its original definition and function, and builds a temporary, poetic stage of absurdity on the new flat land under the creator's domination. The exhibition space thus becomes an arena of new order or new disorder, voluntarily joining the choreography and chorus of media accents; it also becomes a stronghold on the line of escape from the anti-order, eagerly inviting the objects and the people present to enter into this experiment that constantly generates reiteration and discrepancy, to reflect on the rationality of reiteration, imbalance, and disorder, and to look back at the connection and rupture between the exhibition spaces - the earth shakes the mountains.” — Rui Jiang, Curator

Trembling Grounds: Push-Pull Practice dismantles and reconfigures the boundaries of art-making. The show spotlights nine artists — Deborah Castillo, Roman Sheppard Dawson, Sasha Fishman, Elli Fotopoulou, Maya Gurantz, Scott Keightley, Lucia Shuyu Li, Andrew Luk, and Yuhan Shen — whose works delve into multi-centered discourses and span disciplines including performance, video, interdisciplinary sculpture, and site-specific installation. By bringing together these constantly evolving practices, Trembling Grounds examines the concept of "crossing" as a transformative act — crossing subjects, media, languages, physical walls, restrictions, and so on. Crossing is not merely a movement but a rebellion, an active, dynamic force that traverses media and unsettles the familiar.

In this space, objects and creators collide, occupying and reshaping one another, shedding fixed identities and embracing moments of chaos and flux. As creators, viewers, and objects cross these trembling grounds, they all become part of a constantly shifting web of relationships, in which they build up their own narrative autonomy and non-merged storylines, while in which nothing stays stable and everything is constantly up for renegotiation. Disorder becomes a generative force, challenging binaries and exposing the fluid dynamics of subjectivity and power.

Public programming invites visitors to step directly into the action and turns everyone into co-creators of the exhibition’s evolving story. Through hands-on activities, untraditional dialogues, and unexpected moments, audiences can explore instability as a source of creativity and embrace the collapse of rigid systems. Trembling Grounds invites creators, objects, and viewers into a shared process of becoming, turning instability into a stage for new possibilities.

Trembling Ground: Push-Pull Practice is made possible by the Maryland State Arts Council, the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and Friends of Curatorial Practice.

Opening Reception with Live Performance Art

Friday, 03.14.2025
5:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Maya Gurantz presents Endurance Performance Proposition #2 (Lenny Bruce Live at Carnegie Hall), a durational engagement reanimating the raw volatility of Bruce’s infamous 1961 performance, interrogating the friction between comedy, free speech, and bodily limits. Lucia Shuyu Li’s SING!SING!SING! explores vocal endurance as both rebellion and release of body movement and functionality.

Hands-on Workshop “Mycelium Dough”:
Sculpting with Living Materials

Saturday, 03.15.2025
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Ticket: $40

Join Sasha Fishman for a hands-on workshop sculpting with living mycelium dough — a blend of reishi mycelium, clay, and paper pulp — developed by Sasha in collaboration with Lera Niemackl. After a brief presentation on mycelium’s role in sustainable design and construction, participants will shape dynamic, growing forms to take home or keep as they are in the gallery space.

nonverbal workshop “the babel experiment”

Saturday, 03.29.2025
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Become a part of this workshop and engage in a nonverbal exchange, communicating solely through objects. Each person will receive an object and be invited to express their thoughts through interaction to explore the narrative autonomy of objects and their ability to convey meaning beyond language.

closing reception
station north2nd friday art walk

Fiday, 04.11.2025
5:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Witness the last and also take a moment to reflect on the values we hold — polycentric, becoming, collaboration. By returning to our workshop explorations and interventions, and revisiting the crossings, tensions, and temporary structures built in the process, we step into the exhibition’s dynamic exploration of instability, transformation, and rebellion, transcending temporal and spatial boundaries.

artistis

Andrew Luk
Deborah Castillo
Elli Fotopoulou
Lucia Shuyu Li
Maya Gurantz
Roman Sheppard Dawson
Sasha Fishman
Scott Keightley
Yuhan Shen

Curator: Rui Jiang

Rui Jiang is a Baltimore-based curator, writer, and current candidate in the Curatorial Practice MFA Program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). From semiotic theory to intimate momentum, from textuality to oscillating dialogues, her research interests encompass the destruction and reflection of various art media and the exploration of mutual construction in a polycentric field. By contemplating the dynamics in art discourse, her curatorial practice continuously focuses on the discussion towards the ethics of curating. Through interdisciplinary research, she experiments with complicity and reflexivity in the narratives of power relations in exhibitions.