Rooted Shadows is a convergence of six Asian and Asian American artists whose works interrogate the complex interplay between identity, place, and the self. These artists—Riya Devi-Ashby, Lucia Shuyu Li, Bao Nguyen, azumi O E, Setsuhi Shiraishi, and Ni Xin—are not merely performers but explorers of the profound dialogue between personal history and the environment they inhabit. Their medium is performance, their canvas the intricate web of cultural memory and contemporary existence.
What unfolds in this exhibition is not simply the presentation of art but the invocation of a deeper questioning. The artists use performance, collaboration, and multimedia practices to probe the spaces where heritage meets the present, where the self is both rooted and in flux. Maryland, with its nuanced social and physical landscape, becomes more than a backdrop; it is an active force, shaping and being shaped by these works.
The performances range from the evocative movements of Butoh to the meditative strokes of live calligraphy, from the raw immediacy of experimental vocals to the immersive realms of sound installations. Each act, each gesture, each sound is charged with the weight of personal history, while simultaneously refracting that history through the lens of the here and now.
Rooted Shadows compels us to confront the paradoxes inherent in being. It reflects the tension between the rootedness of cultural and familial histories and the shifting, intangible nature of lived experience. These artists, drawing from their ancestral legacies, transform their origins into something that transcends mere memory—something fluid, mutable, shadowed.
The exhibition is an invitation to witness how tradition and the present, personal identity and communal spaces, continually interact. It is a meditation on the ways art can embody this tension, casting shadows of the past even as it roots itself in the unpredictable contours of the present.
