Review: Confluence & Reflection: 2025 China-U.S. Sculpture Exchange Exhibit

Confluence & Reflection: 2025 China-US Sculpture Exchange Exhibition
August 20-Aug 31, 2025 at CSI Project Space, Chicago, IL

by Sishi Wang

I arrived at the opening reception for Confluence & Reflection: 2025 China-US Sculpture Exchange Exhibition, and before I examined any of the wonderful artwork behind glass displays, I already immerse in the show's twin themes. Front and center: a full house of artists from China and the U.S., all focusing on the talk given by Professor Sun Zhenhua from the Chinese Sculpture Society while Professor Xu Shencheng (Northeastern Illinois University) helped translate. Sun began comparing how long it took to travel from China to the U.S. thousands of years ago, a couple centuries ago, and now — just ten hours by plane. He expressed that advanced technology brings us convenience, and that it also made the exchange exhibition possible .

The exhibition is a collaboration sponsored by Zhejiang Sculpture Society and Chicago Sculpture International. To enter the gallery is to be met with beautiful and chaotic harmony — Western rationality and Eastern poetry war and weave, tradition and technology stare pointedly at each other from across the room, and there is space for solemn joyful play.

After the talk, I explored the rich and diverse pieces and I am met with memories from my schooling in Guangdong swirling – as I do around the gallery – in and amongst those from my recent adventures here in Chicago. The old and the new are introducing themselves to each other here, sometimes happily and sometimes in contestation. The works are crafted from traditional material like bronze and clay, as well as more modern substances like acrylic and resin, with the latter pieces methodically built with contemporary techniques like 3D printing and referencing the dawn of AI.

The perpetuity of cultural memory suffuses the show. I was impressed by the work on display which links China from thousands of years ago with today’s world: Packed Water by Wang Hailong was inspired by Mayuan’s water painting from the Song dynasty. Merging AI technology and today’s environmental concerns as the concept, Wang expresses the conflict between environment and humanity distinctly. Drunken by Zhang Jun mimics the great Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai’s body posture when he was drunk. Alcohol was not just a part of Li Bai’s life – he was well known for getting inspiration after a few drinks. Zhang's use of resin and 3D printing makes the work light, playful and movable.

Existing in tense yet harmonious proximity with these more traditionally-inspired pieces is the work of Xu Li (Suspended Breath) and Zhang Qi (Above the Circuit). Magnetic marvel and actuating computing equipment are not on the surface connected to historical values, but these too are part of China's story, and the latter has caused cultural upheaval just as did the poets in ancient dynasties.

The use of everyday objects in Iron Mouth (Shen Lieyi) and Structure of Us (Wu Jie)  calls to mind political issues and social reflection in a harsh, brutal way. In Xuanwu (Zhang Songtao) and Social Issues Animal-Pixiu (Zhai Mofan), viewers are once again brought into the past with the metaphor of Chinese mythological creatures used to soothe people’s souls but also to reflect on global challenges in modern society.

Continuing my exploration, I am encouraged to reflect on moments in which perpetuity fades into precarity as I encounter Wonderful World (Xu Shencheng) and Slap Me (Zhang Haijun). Here, visitors are invited to take an active role in witnessing and managing the future of our world. In the former, our blue planet and its resilient life are on display in resilient steel, rising upwards with humanity’s hopes for the future and away from the destruction we also cause on a daily basis. In the latter, it is the blue planet vs. the power of man-made catastrophe made manifest, and viewers can directly participate in this struggle with the keen flick of ping pong paddle and wrist.

To choose a favorite work here is a paradox. The conversation occurring between pieces demands a holistic view of the past and present of a great people and their culture wrestling with an uncertain future. There is simply too much to think about and the sculptures themselves confirm that there is not enough time to ponder. It is possible to join that conversation, however, and as a daughter of China I could not help but do so.

The work that spoke most to me is Conversing with my Father 向父亲诉说 (Keduan Zhang). The piece is quite plain in color, almost merging to the wall. I took a step closer, then closer still, excited to discover that the work was covered in embroidered Chinese characters. “After my father passed away, images of him during his lifetime often surfaced in my mind, and I felt a strong urge to express this…This act of conversing is inherently an internal dialogue, meant for myself alone--there is no need for viewers to clearly decipher the text.” (Zhang, Keduan. Conversing with my Father, artist statement, 2025) The massive embroidery of undyed cotton yarn on the undyed cotton base provided a place of calm from which I could embark on my journey through the gallery. To view this piece is to engage in a meditative practice similar to what I imagine the artist experienced while making it.

Taken together, the show's merging of conceptual ideas and traditional technique, its use of material at once in unity and opposition, and an imaginative historically-situated yet future-invested ethos gives the show a novel vitality. Here, I feel myself being transported through  space and time and accompanied by deep thoughts spanning the many subjects that the artists question and reflect upon in their work. It is well worth a visit, no matter which past you hail from and which future you are approaching.

Sishi Wang is an artist and educator. Born in Sichuan, raised in Shenzhen, China, Wang holds a MFA degree in Metalsmithing and jewelry design at Indiana University of Bloomington, IN, and a BFA from East Carolina University, NC. She exhibits nationally and internationally, and her work has been published in Art Extravagance Catalog and Alchemy 5: Transformation in Contemporary Enamels. She was one of the recipients of Midwest Metalsmiths Merit Scholarship in 2022.

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