A Conversation with Zishi Han and Wei Yang on “Hairpin Beneath”

On the occasion of their exhibition and performance series at SculptureCenter (presented through SculptureCenter’s In Practice open call), Frankfurt-based artists Zishi Han and Wei Yang are joined by New York-based collaborators to discuss Hairpin Beneath, an ongoing research project into historical Chinese homoerotic literature, intertwining multiple narratives that explore queer existences in China and the Chinese diaspora.

The conversation at AAAinA will reflect on Han and Yang’s introduction of a late Ming dynasty anthology Biàn ér chāi (弁而釵) and other texts to a group of artist-peers who have in turn participated in co-editing and rehearsing the performance work being staged at SculptureCenter from March 13 to 23, 2025.

Collaborators will be announced shortly.

For more information and RSVPs on the performances at SculptureCenter, please use this LINK.

Participant bios:

Zishi Han (b. Beijing, lives and works in Frankfurt am Main) probes masochistic attachment to power structures through installation, sculpture, video and drawing. Drawn to forms that hold and let through, he constructs possessed and perverted apparatuses to dismantle previous relations and incubate unexplored desires.

Wei Yang (b. Liuzhou, lives and works in Frankfurt am Main) explores human beings as a geographic subject in diasporic spaces. He layers collective memories to create hybrid images through myths, history and personal landscapes, which serve as sites of resistance against grand narratives and archival neglect.

Their ongoing project Hairpin Beneath has been exhibited at Perdu, Amsterdam (2025); Tropez, Berlin (2024); Memphis, Linz (2024); Pols, Valencia (2024); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2024); West Den Haag, The Hague (2024); Delfina Foundation, London (2023); and Pickle Bar, Berlin (2023).

Zishi Han and Wei Yang’s time in New York City is organized in partnership with SculptureCenter. SculptureCenter and AAAinA are co-presenting public programming in AAAinA’s Brooklyn Heights reading room that expands on the artists’ In Practice commission and their ongoing collaboration.

SculptureCenter leads the conversation on contemporary art by supporting artistic innovation and independent thought highlighting sculpture’s specific potential to change the way we engage with the world. Positioning artists’ work in larger cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts, SculptureCenter discerns and interprets emerging ideas. Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter provides an international forum that connects artists and audiences by presenting exhibitions, commissioning new work, and generating scholarship.

Light refreshments will be provided.

AAAinA’s general programming and operations are funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, the Vilcek Foundation, and other foundations and individuals.

Host or Publisher Asia Art Archive in America