Osmosis

We never encounter the world directly. What we encounter is the way it reaches us. Between ourselves and the world, there is always something in between: language, culture, the environments in which we grow up, the stories passed down to us, and ideas so familiar that we rarely think to question them.

In biology, osmosis describes the movement of solvent molecules across a semipermeable membrane. It requires no external force, only a membrane and a difference in concentration on either side. Taking this process as its starting point, Osmosis considers how cultural encounters unfold in contemporary life. They do not always arrive as rupture or assimilation. More often, they take place slowly and quietly, through forms of exchange that are difficult to resist or even notice as they happen.

The exhibition turns its attention to the invisible membranes that surround us. They filter what we see and alter the signals that reach us. As these membranes become thinner, something begins to pass through. The boundary remains, but it may become porous enough for pressure from the other side to seep in, carrying with it an unfamiliar temperature and gradually changing the density of what was already there.