Emotions
#arrrtttt #hoonngggkkoonngg #polliiiccee #pprrootteasstsss #doonnallddjjtrryuummpp #neewwyyoorrkkeerrr #nnyytt #evveryythinngg #?????? #evveryyybbooddyy #evverrywwhheerree #evveryysppaaccettiimmeecoonntiinuummm #llaunnchhppaddd #bippoooccc #arrttiicclllesss #articclliinngggg #design #crimessss #infinity #warssssssssssssssssssssssssss #newspapers #magazines #thenewyorker #scmp #art #donaldjtrump #police #protests #nyt #thenewyorker #everything #everybody #everywhere #everyspacetimedimensionscontinuumcontinuity #infinity #wars #bipoc
???????
Emotions
C magazine review
Yuling Chen
April 16th 2026
Bones in the canal and other photographs is an exploration of emotions. It tells people a story about Israel Palestine conflicts’ origins in the biblical stories. The Virgin Mary is made to kneel to measure the length of the legs of ballerina. A baby is sleeping or lying on the floor. A penis is used to shock the viewers out of their senses. Sometimes we see vehicles. Sometimes we see cats. Sometimes we see women and men. These biblical references to sacrifices often link the conflicts to the everyday life of people lived in random places. The exhibition talks about the market in the past tense. It makes up a biblical narrative about the markets as a type of fish travelling through waves of information blackout and black holes. The most notable photograph in the exhibition is the one two people trying to cajoling a cat to play near the river bank. The tender suggestion that they are trying to drown the cat to death has made the photograph a shocking revelation of the Cain and Abel story as a fabrication of love in the face of adversity and struggles. It tells the narrative of the Alice’s adventure in wonderland, of a little blonde girl traversing the dreamy underworld of grotesque monsters without detailing its brutal scenes of murders and killings. The theorist Jacques Derrida in 1997 addressed the public of “the autobiographical animal” later published as “the animal therefore I am (more to follow)”. He talked at large of the animal being a self referential subject looking and gazing back at their spectators. This fear inducing framework has shocked the general public as absurd and grotesque. How could an animal look back at you when it had no human consciousness or awareness of being watched? This photograph deals with this ontological question gently through its gesture of petting. It no longer wants to answer the question and its thorny undercurrents of provocations. It wants to pose itself as a question, should we or shouldn’t we treat ourselves as an autobiographical animal?
The exhibition "Bones in the Canal and Other Photographs" offers a profound and sometimes unsettling journey into the emotional landscape shaped by historical and biblical contexts. From personal experience visiting similar contemporary exhibitions, I found that the use of symbolic imagery—such as the Virgin Mary kneeling or the ambiguous actions surrounding a cat—invites viewers to confront complex themes like sacrifice, innocence, and conflict in a visceral way. What strikes me most about this exhibition is its ability to connect ancient narratives like Cain and Abel to modern-day struggles, making the themes feel both timeless and urgently relevant. The depiction of everyday scenes intertwined with biblical allegory highlights just how deeply these stories impact cultural memory and identity, especially in regions affected by long-standing conflict. Through this lens, ordinary objects and moments become charged with new meaning, encouraging reflection beyond the surface. Moreover, the inclusion of philosophical concepts from Jacques Derrida's "the autobiographical animal" enriches the conversation on how we perceive consciousness and otherness. The photograph portraying the act of petting challenges our assumptions about animals’ awareness and forces us to question our own self-awareness. This approach resonated with me as it expands the exhibition from a visual experience to an intellectual and ethical exploration. Engaging with this exhibition was a reminder of art’s power to evoke empathy and provoke difficult questions. For those interested in the intersections of art, politics, and philosophy, this collection serves as a meaningful case study on how emotions and narratives operate amid turmoil and memory. Whether viewers connect to the biblical references or the emotional undertones, the exhibition invites personal interpretation and a reconsideration of what it means to bear witness through imagery.
