From Ruin, a World Emerges: Inside EX UTERO, a Living Sequence Curated by UAAD at ARTIFICE 004

Globe and Mail

15-04-2025

At the dimly lit CultureHub, something unusual unfolded—an exhibition that did not ask its visitors to walk through white walls or glance at objects in a quiet vacuum. Instead, it invited them to sit, to circle, to listen, and to interact. Presented by Underground Art and Design (UAAD) at the fourth chapter of ARTIFICE 's ongoing event series, EX UTERO turned the exhibition format inside out.
As part of ARTIFICE 004, a two-part showcase split between Black Box (new media art, curated by UAAD) at CultureHub and White Box (material art, curated by //PIXELMOUTH) at La MaMa Galleria, EX UTERO offered six digital artworks not simultaneously but sequentially—each piece appearing like a scene in an unfolding narrative. The space was arranged less like a gallery and more like an immersive theatre. Lights dimmed. Screens flickered. Sounds swelled. And the audience stayed still, not out of passivity, but because they were part of it.
Titled after the Latin for 'beyond the uterus,' EX UTERO imagined a world unbound from biological beginnings or inherited narratives. Instead, the curatorial concept proposed a new genesis—life born not from Eden but from collapse. What emerged was a procession of hybrid creatures, mythic beings, and sensorial ruptures—a heterogeneous world where bodies morph, memories glitch, and meaning resists linearity.
The exhibition began with SPRING WORM, WORM, a projection-based performance-installation by Jiayi Li, Audrey Chou, and Enddle Jianhao Zheng. The audience formed a loose circle around the performer, immersed in a landscape of shifting visuals and unsettling fairy tale narration. Themes of femininity and fluid identity emerged through layered visuals and performative gestures, which enveloped the viewers physically and emotionally. There was no pedestal, no rope barrier—just an intimacy that drew everyone closer.
SYMBIOTIC REVERIE by Renner Yetong Xin, Crystal Yingbo Li, Rainee Yunyi Wang and Yilin Ye followed, transforming the room into a surrealist florist's den. Projections of blooming forms stretched across the walls as dancers entered the scene. The audience, again, surrounded the work rather than walked through it. Eyes tracked every limb and petal with the dancer's move, the boundaries between plant and woman, performer and viewer, slowly eroding.
The third piece, Body Took by Am'Blance, was a virtual reality encounter staged like a ritual. Each participant donned an elaborate, beaded VR headset, becoming both wearer and witness. Around them, others waited in near-silence, watching their transformed companions navigate a fractured digital terrain. The scene had the feel of a collective meditation. The murmured essay soundtrack—delivered via headphones—reflected on queer intimacy and the corpse flower's rare bloom, while the headset itself became a kind of mask, a liminal portal.
With Time Coils by LOREM, the fourth work, the experience shifted into visual and sound. The audience settled into a stillness as deep, looping audio filled the room—less like a concert and more like an ambient ceremony. Composed from global sound archives, reprocessed through machine learning, and interwoven with LOREM's own musical language, the piece blurred cultural borders and temporal edges. It was less about hearing individual tracks than about being submerged in a living sonic fabric.
The tone turned elegiac in the fifth piece, Elegy for a Terrestrial Collapse by Dan Gorelick, Yuj Archetype, and Enddle Jianhao Zheng. Here, visitors sat on the ground, quietly captivated by a visual performance that blended natural footage with data sonification and live cello. The performance took place up close—no stage, no front or back. The audience became an acoustic field around the artists, the body and screen visuals drawing them into a contemplative experience of ecological grief and planetary urgency. Some held their breath. Others closed their eyes. The proximity of it all collapsed the usual art-audience boundary.
The show concluded with CLAI by Interactive Items and Vasilii Miroliubov, an interactive artwork where text inputs instantly changed the generative visual environment. Here, interaction was direct and immediate. Audiences approached the console, tested verbal prompts, and watched the visual world respond in real-time. Each command altered the artwork, creating a feedback loop between human and machine.
Throughout the evening, EX UTERO created a space where digital art felt warm, urgent, and profoundly human. Audiences stayed from start to finish, not out of obligation but because the structure invited their full attention. It wasn't simply a showcase of new media—it was a shared experience of storytelling, transformation, and speculative futures.
At a moment when digital art is often either gamified or isolated, EX UTERO proposed something else entirely: a communal format that embraced slowness, embodiment, and emotional resonance. It offered no single answer, no clean conclusion—only a world where decay and emergence co-exist, and where art, like life, unfolds one breath at a time.
Credits:
This project is a collaboration between Artifice, UAAD, and //Pixelmouth.
The Artifice team includes Bobi Z. (Lead Director), Renaise K. (Creative Director), Sarah K. (Communications), Ethan P. (Technical Designer), and Andrew D. (Assistant Director).
The Blackbox [UAAD] team features Amy Xiaofan J. (Lead Director) and Aurora Zhaoqing C. (Curator).
The Whitebox [//Pixelmouth] team comprises A. Kazal, Tench C., and Tao X. as Co-Directors, with production support by Tabi Cass and Leia Loeser.
Additional production assistance was provided by Max H., Havi M., Julian D., Kelisi S., Supreme H., Svet, Zo, Corina D., Xuan T., Renee, Waner L., Jes V., and Emma C.
Photographer: Raven (@corvus_visio)
This project is made possible with support from our partners La MaMa Galleria and CultureHub, and sponsors Lunar Seltzer, Best Day Brewing, and Waterloo Sparkling Water.
Media Contact
Company Name: Underground Art and Design
Contact Person: Jess D.
Email: Send Email
Country: United States
Website: https://uaad.art