Artist: Catalina Ouyang
Exhibition title: fish mystery in the shift horizon
Venue: Rubber Factory, New York, US
Date: May 22 – June 22, 2019
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Rubber Factory, New York
RUBBER FACTORY is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Catalina Ouyang.
Do you ever see ghosts?
What kind?
How many times in the past year?
Do you know how many?
How many years ago?
How many dead have you seen?
Have you ever heard?
Have you ever killed?
Describe.
– Interview questions on shifting baselines in river populations along the Yangtze, 2006
The catfish and dragons pinned to the bottom of the river, when angered, thrash and wreak havoc on the human villages that suppress them. “fish mystery”1 was a woman who trespassed wantonly in a phallic world of language and was, perhaps thus, executed for murder. Beings are sometimes written into history by being spoken for. When you choose your own adventure, all endings are already inscribed: the fantasy of a mother longing for child, citizen longing for home2, vixen longing for blood. The only way to know is to listen to the water. The songs that it hides. Singing is a way of knowing. Moving is a way of understanding. Touching is a way of remembering.
1 Yu Xuanji (844-871 AD), a Tang-dynasty poet, Daoist priestess, and courtesan
2 Cai Yan (177-250 AD), a late Han-dynasty poet and musician who lived as a captive of the Xiongnu.
Catalina Ouyang has had solo exhibitions at Rubber Factory (New York, NY), Selena Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), and Make Room (Los Angeles, CA). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Kravets Wehby Gallery (New York, NY), ART021 Fair (Shanghai, China), Helena Anrather (New York, NY), the Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT), Anonymous Gallery (Mexico City, Mexico), fffriedrich (Frankfurt, Germany), like a little disaster (Polignano a Mare, Italy), projects+ gallery (St. Louis, MO), SPRING/Break Fair 2018 (New York, NY), Make Room (Los Angeles, CA), No Place (Columbus, OH), Rubber Factory (New York, NY), Gallery 400 (Chicago, IL), COOP Gallery (Nashville, TN) and Field Projects (New York, NY). She has attended residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, FL), NARS Foundation (Brooklyn, NY), OBRAS (Evoramonte, Portugal), Mary Sky (Hancock, VT), North Mountain (Shanghai, West Virginia), and Palazzo Monti (Brescia, Italy). She received her MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2019.
