MFA Alumni Ryota Sato and Tao Xian’s Exhibition “Phantom Pains” featured at Gallery 456

Tao Xian

MFA alumni Ryota Sato and Tao Xian’s exhibition “Phantom Pains” is on display now at Gallery 456.

Phantom pain refers to a painful sensation caused by body parts that have been amputated. The limb is gone, but the pain is real. People who experience phantom pain are often reluctant to address this sensation, for the fear that they will be considered crazy, as if they are haunted by a ghost. Patients wander within the field between perception and reality.
In Phantom Pains, Ryota Sato and Tao Xian, will explore this intermittent spectral realm of mediation in different ways, yet with the same goal of unraveling the layered statuses of perception. With practices including installation, painting, and video, the artists question the function of images as a point of contact when examining perception mediated by our bodies. Their works negotiate the distance between the image and the reality it signifies.

Phantom Pains
Ryota Sato and Tao Xian
Gallery 456
January 6-February 3, 2017