Paul Chan: Breathers

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Mar 8 – Aug 11, 2024

New York–based artist, writer, and publisher Paul Chan (b. 1973, Hong Kong) came to prominence in the early 2000s with vibrant moving image works that touched upon aspects of war, religion, pleasure, and politics. Around 2009, following a decade of art-making, Chan embarked on a self-imposed break, turning his attention to experimental publishing and the economics of information by founding the press Badlands Unlimited. Taking the notion of a “breather” as its organizing principle, this exhibition surveys Chan’s activities since his voluntary break from that point to the present.

Paul Chan: Breathers opens with Nonprojections and Arguments, two series that explore the possibilities of the moving image beyond its primary place of the screen or projection. Language, design, and networks of circulation are examined through the radical publications produced by Badlands Unlimited, which include paperbacks, e-books, zines, GIFs, and books on stone tablets in genres such as erotic fiction, artists’ writings, and poetry. The exhibition also showcases a new series of kinetic sculptures entitled Breathers. These fan-powered billowing fabric bodies, which move in a free-form choreography in the gallery, are described by Chan as “animated by breath.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog created in close collaboration with the artist, designed and published by the Walker Art Center.

For more information, please visit the exhibition website.