Window, 2024. ceramics. Image courtesy of the artist.
By Alice Hu
In Chaostopia, tree branches gathered from around Tarntanya fill the gallery, splaying downwards from the ceiling, protruding from walls, suspended across the space, floating. The gallery walls are painted black, suggesting a cosmic state of being, while eyes, hands, and other corporeal objects intertwine with the branches.
Hundun, is a state of ‘deep chaos’; an embryonic condition that is placed at the root of creation; a primordial state of ‘nothingness’ that is pregnant with endless possibility, where form and matter are undifferentiated yet teeming with energy. The Chinese word defies direct English translation and can be linked to Taoist cosmology, which understands the universe as cyclic, following infinite, self-sustaining cycles, and containing various energies that affect each other in complex patterns. As Alice describes it, chaos is formless matter that compels and conjures intricacy, a sponta- neity that nevertheless comprises a sense of order. The overarching impression of Chaostopia is one of entanglement; a site where categories blur and margins melt, a site where the self is extended through its relation with others.
