Group Show: a porous vessel : Aziz + Cucher, Jordan Homstad, Grace Wardaw, Sara Jimenez, Yi Hsuan Lai, Leila Fatemi, Jesse King

Ryan Van Der Hout presents, a porous vessel, a curated group exhibition featuring the dynamic practices of Canadian and American artists at various stages of their careers who employ the body as a medium for communication and exploration. While the subject matter varies significantly among the artists, what unites their practices is the exploration of the body and its inherent porosity as a foundation for their work. Kazuo Ôno, a founder of Butoh—the Japanese "dance of darkness"—often posits that the body can be conceptualized in three parts: one-third interior (organs, internal thoughts, perhaps even the soul), one-third skin (the perceived layer containing the rest of us), and one-third exterior (the effects we create in the world).

By examining the transmission between the interior and exterior through the skin, these artists reveal the multifaceted nature of the human form. Their work articulates a tension between the body as a sacred vessel and as a dystopian site of the posthuman. Philosopher Byung-Chul Han, in The Disappearance of Rituals, argues that society is losing rituals to technology—one of the central challenges of our time. The work in this exhibition demonstrates how the body remains a conduit through which elements flow, whether they be spiritual energies, culture, viruses, or digital contagions.

This exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the porosity of physical forms and how individuals interact with and are shaped by their environments, both tangible and intangible.

The artists featured in this exhibition are individuals who have inspired curator Ryan Van Der Hout or with whom he has felt a dialogue through his own work and research. He expresses profound gratitude to each artist for contributing their work to this show.