JPS — wumen ghua

Aura, Flower, Butterfly
are all for you
靈光花朵 與蝴蝶 都為你

CHRISTIAN AAGAARD OVESEN, FARIA VAN CREIJ CALLENDER, KYARA VAN MEEL, PHILLIPA ATKINSON, SHANNON LIANG, WENG SUMAN

This exhibition is curated by Dr.Wumen Ghua and invites you to step into a world where butterflies are not merely fleeting creatures of beauty but vessels of ancient wisdom and transformation. It begins with a walk alongside butterflies. Last summer, the exhibition curator spent two months in Inner Mongolia. One day, she encountered hundreds of butterflies while walking in the woods. According to Mongolian beliefs, butterflies are seen by some as ancient deities with the power to transform darkness and bring forth light. They carry messages of hope and the promise of freedom. This extraordinary experience stirred deep gratitude and awe in the curator’s heart, awakening a profound question within her: What does it mean to feel—or even become—a butterfly?

Guided by German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s reflections in Berlin Childhood Around 1900, the exhibition traces the delicate boundary between human and non-human consciousness. Benjamin describes his own metamorphosis into a butterfly—“all the fibers of my being” dissolving into wings—echoing Zhuang Zhou’s ancient Chinese parable. Over two millennia ago, the philosopher dreamed he was a butterfly so vividly that upon waking, he questioned: Am I a man who dreamed of wings, or a butterfly now dreaming itself human? This parable challenges distinctions between self and other, reality and dream, human and non-human, reminding us of the interconnectedness and fluidity of existence.

The artists in this exhibition, hailing from six countries, channel this liminality through transmedia works that dissolve fixed perceptions of identity and consciousness: Shannon Liang (US/China), Weng Suman (China), Faria van Creij Callender (Netherlands), Kyara van Meel (Netherlands), Phillipa Atkinson (Australia), and Christian Aagaard Ovesen (Denmark). Their creations—spanning sculpture, painting, and digital media—explore shape-shifting transformations, engaging with the world and beyond. Their works invite viewers to inhabit alternative modes of being and connect with another kind of consciousness. From ethereal auras to biomorphic forms, their transmedia explorations challenge fixed distinctions, revealing the contingency of perception, the mutable nature of identity, and the non-human forces with which we are intertwined.

Curated by Mongolian artist Wumen, who has gathered these spiritual works from Japan and Europe, the exhibition is a testament to humanity’s enduring sensitivity to ephemeral beauty and the poetic unknown.

Dear visitors, as you wander through this space of metamorphosis, remember the aura of a flower and the whisper of a wing—these fragile wonders exist not in spite of their transience, but because of it. They are all here for you, for you to carry forward, like a butterfly cradling light.

design & development by Webiii