ALMOST molting

ALMOST MOLTING

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ARARIO GALLERY SHANGHAI is honored to announce the group exhibition Almost Molting, featuring works by artists CHEN Li, MA Lingli, SHAO Fengtian, and WANG Qiqi. The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, August 2 to Saturday, September 6, 2025.

"For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror." (Denn das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang.) Inspired by the paradox revealed by poet Rainer Maria Rilke in his Duino Elegies, this exhibition explores states of being that are symptomatic of psychological or cultural conditions, in which meaning is perpetually deferred through différance. Originating in profound desires and drifting through the peripheries of perception, they evoke a complex affect interwoven with allure and the uncanny. "Molting" metaphorically signifies the shuddering moment of corporeal renewal. When the old skin clings yet peels away and the new flesh remains semi-revealed, beauty coexists with dread. Here, the body becomes the site of psychic evolution: the molt is both the ambiguous vestige of existential transformation and a symbol of the transgressive imprints coagulated within the depths of perception. The artists collectively focus on these elusive states of being, tracing the alternative trajectories these states slip into within the deferral of meaning.

Artist

Chen Li, Ma Lingli, Shao Fengtian, Wang Qiqi

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Exhibition Date

2 August - 6 September 2025

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Venue

Suhe Haus 205, 30 Wen'an Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai

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