How do we find our bearings between the flux of the starry sky, land, and ocean? How do we regain autonomy within the material objects of animal specimens, industrial materials, and the human body? Feng Zhixuan’s solo exhibition “Trek” questions the tension between contemporary geopolitics and individual experience through the lens of blurred geographical boundaries and the decentralization of subject-object relationships.The exhibition places the body within a seemingly static yet inherently dynamic geographical framework, emphasizing the vulnerability and limitations of the body: terrains that are marked and depicted become oceans and mountains again through human-induced imprints and overlaps, while the body continues to reconstruct both the three-dimensional and horizontal orders. The functionality of hydrofoils and their battleship-like formations illustrate the duality of geopolitics and consumerism. Streetlights, narwhal bone fossils, and palm trees highlight the way an individual perceives geographical forces and the body’s experience within them through industrial imitation of nature. The continuity of time and the persistence of matter is thus fractured, showcasing the intertwining of the body with technology and capital in contemporary society.

— Leo Li Chen