World that Awaits

A group exhibition that includes work by Chicago-based artists Kayla Anderson, Scott Kemp, Sofia Diaz Fernandez, Cody Norman, Jungwoo Lee, and FÁTIMA, curated by Amay Kataria.

Curated by Amay Kataria

Mu Gallery is pleased to present and welcomes all to the opening of World that Awaits, a group exhibition that includes work by Chicago-based artists Kayla Anderson, Scott Kemp, Sofia Diaz Fernandez, Cody Norman, Jungwoo Lee, and FÁTIMA, curated by Amay Kataria. World that Awaits brings a compelling collection of new and existing objects that invite visitors to reflect upon a world that deviates from its assigned categories, a world that spills beyond meanings and attributes, a world that rejects trajectories ... a world that simply awaits. With a range of multimedia works rooted in contemporary and traditional practices, the exhibition glimpses upon the horizon of the unknown that unifies our existence with this world.

Everything we see is in relation to us, the individual. Our mind often diffracts what we see in our environment into its constituents and assigns labels of menial or nontrivial, noble or ignoble, simple or hard, archaic or contemporary. What is the agency of a flower resting in a garden, emanating a scent that enthralls a passerby, and what are the consequences of its behavior? Perhaps on a macro level, we may appear to have these boundaries that separate us from the world around us. However, on a micro level, there is the biota that crawls or lives, within or without the body, exchanging itself with others, without any national approval. Biologists say that the gut is the second brain. So where does the “mind-body” begin and where does it end?

As artists, we often use materials that bridge our vision with the expression of the world. However, the materials are not empty. Before the human encounter, they hold lives and purposes that are intertwined with culture and tradition. Perhaps, this may be an intersubjective - interconnected reality, where existence is a form of acceptance rather than resistance or resilience. Every time there is a crisis, we try to solve it, yet resulting in a new crisis. Thus, the territory of solutions is a territory of crisis. What if this circular world needs no corrections, solutions, strategies, processes, or fixes like we are affixed to approach it with? Maybe it has always spread its arms in abundance, but we have been myopic and anthropomorphic in our reactions. What seems invasive or problematic may be an opportunity to stay with the trouble and embrace it.

Participating Artists

Kayla Anderson, Scott Kemp, Sofia Diaz Fernandez, Cody Norman, Jungwoo Lee, and FÁTIMA.

Amay Kataria is a visual artist and a first-time curator, whose practice is becoming a site to excavate new ecologies that are sympoetic and correlated with nature. His methodology is communal and approach is experimental yet open-ended, while creating a field of empathy, sensitivity, care, and intimacy towards the stories that he wants to perpetuate. He holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was previously a new-media resident at Art Center Nabi and Mana Contemporary. He has exhibited at Hyde Park Art Center, Ars Electronica, Electromuseum, Vector Festival, Mu Gallery, among others.