Between the Breath of Objects
On the Impossibility of
Still Objects

In Between the Breath of Objects, curated by Jinyi Freya Xu and Shuhan Zhang, “the object” is not redefined so much as destabilized. Rather than presenting objects as entities to be seen and identified, the exhibition places them within an ongoing condition, one that approximates a structure of “breathing.”

 

This “breath” is not a metaphor in any anthropomorphic sense, but a way of distributing time. Objects here do not hold stable form; instead, they are continually reorganized across light, interface, body, and material. Painting no longer functions as image but tends toward a diffuse, atmospheric extension; jewelry exceeds ornament, becoming an attachment to an extension of the body; digital images do not remain on screen, but are translated into surfaces with weight and tactility. Rather than forming discrete categories, these media enter into a slow but continuous field of relation.

 

Such an approach points toward a perceptual turn in philosophical thinking. Objects are no longer presented as stable entities but are continually generated through the act of viewing. They neither fully depend on human perception nor exist as closed, autonomous forms. Instead, they remain suspended within a dynamic interplay of appearance and dissolution. In this sense, objects align with a relational ontology. They do not precede relations but are continuously produced through them. Here, objects are not given all at once but unfold gradually over time, always retaining a remainder that resists full disclosure.

 

Accordingly, the decentering of the human is not established as a fixed position but remains a possibility that is constantly deferred. The viewer still enters the space through the body, yet cannot fully stabilize what is encountered. Looking no longer leads to clear recognition but becomes a process repeatedly interrupted and delayed.

 

Within this condition, shifts in light, material reflection, and spatial rhythm keep objects in a state of incompletion. They neither detach entirely from human experience nor are fully subsumed by it. Instead, they remain suspended in a threshold condition, at once present and continually in formation.

 

From this instability, a more subtle shift begins to emerge. Objects are no longer there as fixed entities but appear instead as relations continuously generated across time, space, and bodies. Breath, in this sense, does not belong to the objects themselves but to the ongoing variation of these relations, forming a field of tension without a fixed center.

 

This instability unfolds through different artistic practices, each tracing a distinct trajectory while remaining anchored in the same underlying condition. In Kyung Kim’s paintings, images tend toward dissolution, with color diffusing slowly across the surface in a manner akin to breath. This draws viewing into a temporal suspension rather than a completed act of recognition. Luping Wang’s jewelry shifts this instability onto the body. Metal and stone no longer function as ornament but become structures of attachment, extension, and continuous transformation, through which form is generated in movement.