The five artists transform all of the gallery’s spaces, premiering works that examine the bounds of the body, disgust and morality, and the restraints of language, history and memory. Diverse in media and approach, the artworks on view employ unpredictable materials to engage and challenge viewers’ senses.

From the cavernous concrete mixers of the kinetic sculpture Look, I’m a fountain of filth raving mad with love (2024) comes a raucous noise as the machines slowly spin their contents. The work’s title stems from a poem by Kim Eon Hee, who is known for her brutal images of bodies and eroticism.

Addressing fear, violence, trauma and mental breakdown, her noisy and distinct-smelling installation defies taboos and explores art as an intensely physical experience.

Liu presents three recent video works exploring the Chinese frontier region of the Changbai Mountains, a place steeped in complex geopolitical histories and extractive economies. In A Darkness Shimmering in the Light (2023), Liu Yujia weaves eco-fiction with drone footage, 16-mm film, ethnography, and mythology to create a space where the political, personal and spiritual meet.

In the downstairs galleries, a literal division—a concrete wall produced especially for the show—sets the stage for a body of work by Gala Porras-Kim. Untitled (Efflorescence) (2018/24) is a structure made with concrete supersaturated with salt, which will gradually migrate to the surface, causing its slow deterioration. The work references the use of natural processes of demolition to bypass regulations for the historic preservation of buildings.

Out of an instance of expiration comes a perennial showing (2022–ongoing) examines the conditions and limits of conservation methodology: mould spores collected from the British Museum’s storage are propagated in the gallery. A living object, the large-scale work continues to change as the microorganisms and fungi grow. By displaying the germinating microbes that have digested microscopic particles of ancient artefacts, the viewer can witness the objects evolving into a new form. It is a return to their pre-institutional natural course of decay, shifting the argument for repatriation from a geographical traversal to an organic one.

Her video installation Nook of a Hazy Dream (2023) plays on one manufactured and three handmade glass panels and follows Lap Hung, a fictional character grappling with his sense of identity after remigrating from Thailand to China in 1956, paralleling the life of Tan Jing’s late grandfather.

Zhang Ruyi’s sculptures and paintings are based on common construction materials found in large cities, such as cement, tile, plastic film, graph and grid paper, and detritus from building sites. Employing the cactus as a central image, the works explore the tension and coexistence between the organic and the inorganic.

Mire Lee (*1988, Seoul) lives and works in Seoul and Berlin. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Department of Sculpture (2012) and in Media Arts (2013) from Seoul National University. Her recent solo exhibitions include Black Sun, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2023) and Look, I’m a fountain of filth raving mad with love, Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt am Main (2022). As the next Hyundai Commission artist, she will create a new site-specific work for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, opening in October 2024.

Liu Yujia (*1981, Sichuan Province) lives and works in Beijing. She graduated from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing and obtained her Master’s degree from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Her recent solo exhibitions include DRC NO.12, Beijing (2021), Surplus Space, Wuhan (2021), Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing (2023, 2017, 2016) and Shanghai Gallery of Art (2015).

Gala Porras-Kim (*1984, Bogotá) lives and works in Los Angeles and London. The Korean-Colombian artist received her Master of Fine Arts from CalArts, Santa Clarita (2009). She was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Cambridge (2019), Artist-in-Residence at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2020–22). Her work has been exhibited at the MoMA, New York (2023), Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2023), MMCA, Seoul (2023), MUAC, Mexico City (2023), Liverpool Biennial (2023), Gwangju Biennial (2021), São Paulo Art Biennial (2021), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019, 2017).

Tan Jing (*1992, Shenzhen) lives and works in Guangdong. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Chelsea College of Art and Design (2015) and her Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art, London (2017). Her works have been shown at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2023), HB Station, Guangzhou (2022), Para Site, Hong Kong (2021), Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou (2020), Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig (2018), Spielzeug Welten Museum Basel (2018) and Camden Art Centre, London (2017).

Zhang Ruyi (*1985, Shanghai) lives and works in Shanghai. She received her Master of Fine Arts (2012) and her Bachelor of Arts (2007) from Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University. Her works have been shown at the 16th edition of Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art (2022), the Beijing Biennial (2022), TANK Shanghai Art Centre, Shanghai (2021), and others. Her recent solo exhibitions include Once Remain, Once Remould, Don Gallery, Shanghai (2023), Zhang Ruyi: Speaking Softly, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2022), Modern Fossil, START Museum, Shanghai (2022), Consciousness of Location, Don Gallery, Shanghai (2019), Bonsai, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles (2019).