Cc Foundation & Art Centre was pleased to present Moon Rehearsals, an exhibition by VERTEX af (Ei Arakawa and Sarah Chow) with a performance in collaboration with Forrest Nash. Moon Rehearsals was VERTEX af’s first solo exhibition in China.

VERTEX af inquires how magic meets the conceptual in contemporary art production. Utilizing astrology and other magical practices, VERTEX af proposes alternative systems of knowledge that can be used to inform our actions and relationships. While mainstream concepts of astrology (like daily horoscopes and pop cultural sun-sign interpretations) can act as an almost oppressive force that dictate the events of our lives, the zodiac can also be employed as a tool for intuitive self-empowerment and the production of non-data—a blurry, lunar, and somewhat confused approach to technological thinking.

The exhibition centers around the Octagon Pavilion, an eight-sided semi-transparent structure, around which a group of temporal objects circulated: three LED Moons slowly phasing, an LED asteroid Ryugu, named for a mythical undersea dragon palace, fifteen essays of Performance People (personality profiles of performance art works derived through astrological analysis), a laser-etched drawing on ceramic, a new song, and a large outdoor poster. The sliding silk curtains of the Octagon Pavilion mirrored the moon’s orbital path around the earth, while a lunar composition played in the background. During the performative concert at the opening, the audience engaged with an improvisational dance to synergize with the phases of the moon. Stickers indicating the audience’s sun and moon signs were displayed in the exhibition afterword showcasing a temporary collectivity.

About the opening performance (approx. 40min)

Together with collaborator Forrest Nash, VERTEX af presented seven live songs from Arakawa’s previous art installations and musicals. (Paris & Wizard, 2013; Jiro, Digital Paintings, 2015; How to DISappear in America, 2016; Sculpture Project Münster, 2017; and more) The songs, performed with a vocoder, were about temporality and the ephemerality of paintings, artists, art collectives, and the art world. One of the songs was a new work-in-progress by VERTEX af and Nash. A planetary dance actioned by VERTEX af, Nash, and the audience, accompanied this song.