CANDY QU: Fluid Consciousness
2025-12-17 – 2025-12-31 · Hangzhou · L Gallery
CANDY QU: Fluid Consciousness — solo exhibition at L Gallery, Hangzhou, 17 Dec – 31 Dec 2025.
Beginning from individual consciousness, Fluid Consciousness approaches culture as a condition of existence akin to water.
The subject does not stand outside culture and choose among its forms; rather, like a fish in water, one is always immersed within it, often becoming aware of its presence only when the currents begin to shift. When culture ceases to feel stable, consciousness is awakened from the familiarity of its surroundings and begins to perceive the flow itself.
Migration and cross-cultural experience are not merely forms of displacement, but transitions between different waters. Changes in temperature, density, and direction render previously effortless ways of living suddenly unfamiliar. Within this imbalance, consciousness is compelled to adapt, relearning how to swim and how to breathe. Familiar languages and systems of value no longer function automatically, and the self enters a state that is suspended, adrift, yet intensely alert.
In this sense, in-betweenness is neither a transitional phase nor a condition of lack, but an enduring structure of existence. A fish does not belong to any single drop of water; it exists within ever-changing currents. Likewise, consciousness is not fixed within a singular cultural identity, but emerges at the intersections of multiple cultural worlds. Culture is no longer an external framework but a field of flows through which consciousness and world continually shape one another. The self is not a finished placement but an ongoing process of formation in motion; identity is not a static belonging, but the trace of consciousness swimming through the current.
