Return Passage Residency Exhibition

ACENTRICSPACE, Shanghai, China

March 30 - 31, 2024

“Return Passage” showcases the work of Rachel TonThat, Emerald Repard-Denniston, and Webson Ji, three artists who have used their residency at ACENTRICSPACE to reconnect to their Chinese roots. American-born artist and writer Rachel TonThat explores her family ties to China through its trade with her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, and uses a material-based practice of traditional trade goods such as silk, ceramic, and cotton to consider authenticity, reproduction, and industrialization. Emerald Repard-Denniston, a Canadian artist adopted from Hunan Province, presents paintings based on a Sapphic version of the myth of Chang’e and Hou Yi that serve as a framework for examining her own cultural and sexual identity. After six years of studying and working in the US, Chinese artist Webson Ji uses this trip home to gain a new perspective in his ongoing series, “Black Water,” which assesses the reality of the American Dream, and “Make Rain,”  which offers hopeful propositions for the disenchanted. Together, their diverse, multidisciplinary works illustrate the many pathways of return.