Moonlit Beings are porous, emerging and hybridised. Opening on the day of the full moon, the exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by six women and non-binary artists who reimagine femininity, the body, and our relationship to nature.

In Greek Mythology, the moon is portrayed as Selene, the goddess of night, shining silver light down from a celestial chariot while being carried by two snow-white horses. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung refers to the Triple Goddess as a female archetype, where the Maiden, Mother, and Crone aspects align with the moon’s phases as it orbits Earth. Archetypes, in his words, can be seen as "expressions of the collective unconscious", since mythological figures often reflect truths about human experience. Universally representing the rhythm of time, the different phases of the moon in a lunar cycle symbolise eternity, enlightenment and the dark side of nature. 

From Li Bai’s poem Thoughts on a Tranquil Night (726) to Remedios Varo's painting Celestial Pablum (1958), artists, literati and astronomers alike seek fascination in the moon's enchanting psyche. In surrealist thought, the moon is often a metaphor for fantasy and the unconscious, distorting linear time or everyday reality. Turning its inward eye toward the world of the imagination to engage with human emotions, surrealism celebrates the liberation of the self; where one sees things beyond the immediately perceptible, and the wildness within ourselves grows.

What is the essence of the universe? Is there a spark of the divine hidden within us? As we examine the relation of nature to human perception, we can look at how these questions are addressed in philosophical traditions.

In Western philosophy, ontology is the study of beings and related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. For Aristotle, the soul’s essence is defined by its relationship to an organic structure. This is to say that not only humans, but beasts and plants to have souls. Similarly, Taoists see all things as periodical mutations within an unchanging unity (the constant Dao), and the human being is a microcosm corresponding rigorously to the macrocosm. While the body reproduces the plan of the cosmos, human experiences reveal the structure of the cosmos. 

Since industrialisation, the connection between humanity and nature has undergone a significant transformation. The constant arrival of ecological disasters and technological crises urges a new direction for society to avoid its demise. The Anthropocene epoch, first theorised by Paul Crutzen in his article (2000), becomes a turning point for the geo-political imagination of another future or beginning. As human beings become the driving force in this new phase of planetary history, are we on the brink of an apocalyptic moment?

Weaving Eastern and Western practices, artists in this exhibition depict the alchemical potential of the body, the detritus of the human unconscious, or sometimes fantastical creatures that arrived from a distant galaxy. Inherently absurd, often sensual, always dreamlike, Moonlit Beings presents a kaleidoscopic moment portraying the world’s plurality. 

A reading space accompanies the exhibition. This final exhibition space offers reading materials that inform a range of artistic processes, from novels to literature. Collaboratively composed by both artists and curator, A Way to the Moon is a visual poem inspired by Exquisite Corpse, which traces its roots to the Parisian Surrealist movement. The title hints at a journey into the unconscious, the imaginaries, unravelling spaces in between, while the verses come from fluid and fragmented musings, intentional and unsettled textual processes attached to a concept or personal experiences. 

About Curator：

Jessica Wan

Jessica Wan is an independent curator and writer who takes a cross-disciplinary approach to form modes of knowledge production and dissemination that encounters culture and the political as an open question. She has worked collaboratively with artists and thinkers to develop works in non-profit and commercial spaces including museums, foundations, galleries, art fairs and cultural festivals. Her self-led curatorial projects seek to reconfigure spaces into situations where the subject is situated to understand oneself as interconnected with the wider environment.

Jessica is currently an associate lecturer at the Chelsea College of Arts and a contributor to publications. Her recent curatorial research focuses on visual artists who engage with ecology, diasporic culture, feminist technoscience and contemporary non-western practice.