The Moon Only Uses the Window

Press Release

ASTRA ART is delighted to present the group exhibition The Moon Only Uses the Window, running from 22 September to 24 November 2024. Curated by Chang Chan, the show features the creative practices of eight artists, each with distinct expertise and unique explorations over the past three years. Through a collection of paintings, videos and moving images, the exhibition builds a narrative of intimacy and loneliness, memory and disappearance, self and the Other. 

Inspired by Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse, the curator aims to open a language-door and to write some “fragments” text, a truly laborious task, and invites the audience to open the “love window” and let the moon to come in.

Overture

A tall man, dressed in a traditional Victorian-style lace wedding gown and holding a bouquet, walks alone through the streets of London. The sombre street scene is heightened by the wet hem of his dress, ribbons fluttering in the wind, and the look of disappointment on the face of this “bride”.

Is he waiting for someone or searching for a place to belong in the city? Artist Leo Costelloe explores the challenges and solitude faced by queer identities within the constraints of traditional domestic culture, particularly in the realms of love and desire.

Memory

How can we preserve our loved ones' fleeting moments of existence? The armchair they once sat in still holds the imprint of their presence; the clothes they wore still retain the curves of their bodies. Susanne Baumann reflects on the slow dissolution of a family member suffering from Alzheimer's, capturing intimate moments in her paintings, each rooted in memory.

Kirsten Schauser explores memory as a form of perception. Blurred, layered, and splintered images unite distant memories, which exist in a state that is both present and absent at once. 

Chen Ruofan seeks to alter the passage of time, merging brief and fragmented life experiences into her own virtual world. In this space, she manipulates gravity, acceleration, wind resistance, and even time itself, allowing her beloved objects to continue evolving in this alternate realm.

the Other

Meng Yangyang’s painted works depict a range of urban characters — alienated individuals set against the backdrop of a dreamlike city. Her segmented portrayals and fantasies intertwine, evoking a sense of nostalgia that feels unmoored. 

In a consumerist society where everything is commodified, we find ourselves falling into what the philosopher Byung-Chul Han called “the hell of the sameness.” How, then, can we truly see the Other and escape the swamp of narcissism?

Liu Xi uses bubbles as a metaphor for her experience within the societal group. In the collision between the individual and the collective, the self and the Other, boundaries and eruptions occur simultaneously. The pressure between these bubbles could be grand and immense, as well as subtle and nuanced; it can either burst into fireworks or dissolve silently into the depths of water.

Every Breath a New Cosmos

In her solitary life, Pan Ran transforms the universe into an object of contemplation. She repeatedly applies abstract geometric shapes to the canvas, aiming to capture the Zen-like quality of Muqi's painting "Six Persimmons" or to depict the growing world through the lens of string theory. Over time, the imagery slowly evolves into a narrative, built through daily layers of application.

Flickering and distorted, Chen Xiyao’s work invites the audience to experience the rhythm of disintegration and rebirth. Through long-term observation and the study of both visible and invisible elements within ecosystems, Chen highlights the interconnectedness between humans and non-humans, between subterranean growth and satellite signals, between the microbes living in milk and the Milky Way.