Matèria is pleased to announce the opening of Spoken Leaves, Chen Xiaoyi's second solo exhibition at the gallery. With her long-awaited return to Rome, the artist presents a new body of work that highlights her pronounced inclination towards multidisciplinarity developed in recent years, evidenced by the fusion of photography, publishing, sculpture, video, and experimental printing techniques.
The title Spoken Leaves draws inspiration from a dialogue between Martin Heidegger and Tezuka Tomio (a professor of German literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo), in which the two, to explore the subtle evocative nuances of language and its essence, delve into the concept of "Koto ba," a Japanese term meaning "word/language" but also known as the "Garden of Words." This definition, with its deep metaphorical character, plays a key role in Chen's research, inviting viewers to navigate existential dimensions beyond mere verbal communication.
Spoken Leaves thus emerges as a bridge, fluidly connecting the ordinary with the profound traces of nature and human consciousness; a metaphorical boundary formally rendered by the monumentality of the Hengduan Mountains in China, a place that has characterized the artist's last four years of life, fostering and inspiring the visual translation of the transient essence of natural phenomena.
In Chen Xiaoyi's imagination, the landscape is redrawn along the coordinates of transcendence, seeking an ancestral vitality that fuels a new dynamic perspective, surpassing the boundaries of human temporality; a tool to navigate a contemporary landscape fraught with difficulty and uncertainty.
Imbued with a sense of temporal depth, Chen Xiaoyi's works anchor the experience of life to indeterminate horizons, blurring the line between the tangible and the transcendent, seeking magical elements in everyday experience.
Spoken Leaves is a testament to Chen's bold attempt to capture the essence of existence itself.
The title Spoken Leaves draws inspiration from a dialogue between Martin Heidegger and Tezuka Tomio (a professor of German literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo), in which the two, to explore the subtle evocative nuances of language and its essence, delve into the concept of "Koto ba," a Japanese term meaning "word/language" but also known as the "Garden of Words." This definition, with its deep metaphorical character, plays a key role in Chen's research, inviting viewers to navigate existential dimensions beyond mere verbal communication.
Spoken Leaves thus emerges as a bridge, fluidly connecting the ordinary with the profound traces of nature and human consciousness; a metaphorical boundary formally rendered by the monumentality of the Hengduan Mountains in China, a place that has characterized the artist's last four years of life, fostering and inspiring the visual translation of the transient essence of natural phenomena.
In Chen Xiaoyi's imagination, the landscape is redrawn along the coordinates of transcendence, seeking an ancestral vitality that fuels a new dynamic perspective, surpassing the boundaries of human temporality; a tool to navigate a contemporary landscape fraught with difficulty and uncertainty.
Imbued with a sense of temporal depth, Chen Xiaoyi's works anchor the experience of life to indeterminate horizons, blurring the line between the tangible and the transcendent, seeking magical elements in everyday experience.
Spoken Leaves is a testament to Chen's bold attempt to capture the essence of existence itself.
Matèria很高兴宣布陈萧伊的第二次个展“Spoken Leaves”在画廊开幕。这位艺术家备受期待地重返罗马，展出了近年来在跨媒介方向上显著倾向的新作品，这一点从她融合了摄影、雕塑、影像、出版物和实验性印刷技术中得到了体现。
“Spoken Leaves”，源于马丁·海德格尔和德国文学教授手冢富雄（日本东京帝国大学）的一场对话，他们探讨了言说所蕴含的微妙引力及其本质，提及了 “言叶（Koto ba）”这一概念，在日语中意味着“词/语言”，也可以理解为“言语的庭院 （The Garden of words）”。这个概念背后具有深刻的隐喻特征，在陈萧伊的实践中起着关键作用，邀请观众探索超越纯粹言语交流的存在维度。
因此，“Spoken Leaves”成为了一座桥梁，作为存在本身发声的方式，连接着理所当然的日常表象之下，自然的深刻痕迹与人类意识——旨在提出一种超越物质世界表象的视角，探索那些定义我们自身与经验底层的原理和力量；一道由中国西南横断山脉的磅礴，所真正呈现的隐喻界限，并且，如此难以言表的自然时空，标记着艺术家过去几年的生活，锻造并持续激发着她对转瞬即逝本质的视觉翻译。
在陈萧伊的实践中，风景沿着有限性与超越的坐标重新绘制，在充满动能的视角中，以超越人类时间性的界限，寻求一种潜在生命力和存在的可能性，这种观点挑战了我们对存在和非存在的传统理解；同时在充满困境和不确定性的当代景观中，成为一种新的导航。
陈萧伊的作品穿梭于时空的纵深，将生命经验锚定在不可定义的视野上，模糊了有形和超越的界限，试图揭示那些隐藏在日常经验中，令人不可思议却难以言说的存在维度。
“Spoken Leaves”见证了在陈萧伊捕捉存在本质的实践中，一次勇敢的僭越。
“Spoken Leaves”，源于马丁·海德格尔和德国文学教授手冢富雄（日本东京帝国大学）的一场对话，他们探讨了言说所蕴含的微妙引力及其本质，提及了 “言叶（Koto ba）”这一概念，在日语中意味着“词/语言”，也可以理解为“言语的庭院 （The Garden of words）”。这个概念背后具有深刻的隐喻特征，在陈萧伊的实践中起着关键作用，邀请观众探索超越纯粹言语交流的存在维度。
因此，“Spoken Leaves”成为了一座桥梁，作为存在本身发声的方式，连接着理所当然的日常表象之下，自然的深刻痕迹与人类意识——旨在提出一种超越物质世界表象的视角，探索那些定义我们自身与经验底层的原理和力量；一道由中国西南横断山脉的磅礴，所真正呈现的隐喻界限，并且，如此难以言表的自然时空，标记着艺术家过去几年的生活，锻造并持续激发着她对转瞬即逝本质的视觉翻译。
在陈萧伊的实践中，风景沿着有限性与超越的坐标重新绘制，在充满动能的视角中，以超越人类时间性的界限，寻求一种潜在生命力和存在的可能性，这种观点挑战了我们对存在和非存在的传统理解；同时在充满困境和不确定性的当代景观中，成为一种新的导航。
陈萧伊的作品穿梭于时空的纵深，将生命经验锚定在不可定义的视野上，模糊了有形和超越的界限，试图揭示那些隐藏在日常经验中，令人不可思议却难以言说的存在维度。
“Spoken Leaves”见证了在陈萧伊捕捉存在本质的实践中，一次勇敢的僭越。
Spoken Leaves, 2024
Exhibition view, Matèria, Roma.
Courtesy the artist and Matèria, Roma.
Photo by Roberto Apa
All images and texts copyrights © 2013-2025 Xiaoyi Chen