Within the exhibition of gabi dao we see souls in a process of transition: moving between realms and states of being. The works interrogate this poignant interstitial space. For those restlessly searching for a new form, hope lies in transformation. dao constructs a system of belief where demonised creatures such as bats or vampires become figures of resilience for racialised, queer and trans communities.
In the first gallery of dao’s exhibition, three small house-like structures made from hand-made ceramic tiles and wood draw on the spiritual architecture of outdoor shrines commonly found in Vietnam, East and Southeast Asia. Traditionally holding offerings such as food, drink, and incense, these structures are sites of veneration, care and transmission. They also provide comfort to ‘hungry ghosts’: restless souls that have died unjustly.
gabi dao’s shrines are not dedicated to specific individuals, but to a broader practice of devotion. These shrines are adorned with imagery of bats, which are often seen positioned in thresholds like windows, roofs or doorways. In dao’s work, they evoke guardians that move between realms, echoing spiritual intermediaries such as angels in Christianity.
In the following room, dao presents the collaborative film Resurrect Me as a Parasite made with artist Lou Lou Sainsbury. Filmed in part at a grotto in southern France dedicated to Mary Magdalene, the work combines ritualistic imagery of ‘parasitic’ figures such as vampires and mosquitoes: beings which are dependent on others to survive. Reclaiming these vilified creatures, dao and Sainsbury ask us to rethink concepts of disgust, divinity, and desire.
gabi dao is from the unceded and ancestral territories of the x ʷ mə θ kwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and Səl̓ílwəta ʔ /Selilwitulh Nations (‘Vancouver’, Canada) who is currently based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. dao’s exhibition is in collaboration with the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.
The artist would like to thank the following people for their help with the exhibition: Lou Lou Sainsbury, Gloriya Avgust, Ioana Lupascu, Studio Pascalle de Jager, Ticho Brouwers.
gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao, Subjectivity survives ideology, 2026, Porcelain, black clay, high fire glazes, underglaze, pigment washes, tile grout, linden wood, beet, turmeric and red cabbage stains, bamboo leaves, heels, falsies, dried chrysanthemum flowers, jujubes, goji berries, ginger, white fungus, monkey’s head mushroom, perfume bottle from Al, cigarettes. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari gabi dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury, Resurrect Me as a Parasite, 2025, 16mm to digital, 09:52, charred and stained wood, limestone, low-fired porcelain vessels, red lighting. Exhibition views of The horrors persist but so do I at Z33, Hasselt. Photo: © Silvia Cappellari
