[Final Call] We Went to Traceries – It Ends March 25

Final Call is a column about the things worth doing before they're gone. Closing restaurants, last-weekend exhibitions, job fairs, pop-ups, whatever Shanghai is quietly taking away while you're not paying attention. We find them, we flag them, sometimes we go ourselves. The point is: Don't wait. Send this to someone and take them with you.

Shanghai's climb to the status of a global cultural hub has been undeniable.

Recent city plays the city has been making, such as the Design in the City initiative highlighting the most vibrant neighborhoods in Shanghai, are cultivating something very important: cultural interest. The neighborhood that has recently been getting the buzz, but not yet overrun with influencers, is Fantai Dasha, or Fantai Mansion. The whole area I saw people describing as having a hip streets-of-Thailand kind of vibe; I cannot confirm or deny, since I've never been to Thailand. However, I have hung out in the area a couple of times at this point, and it has become one of my favorites. A couple of amazing coffee shops (shout out to Polly's cafe) and restaurants, plus a bunch of art spaces and studios. One of them we're about to pay a proper visit.

Traceries is a light, movement and memory exploration, curated and organized by Atelier INDJ. Running until March 25, to be specific. The main exhibit, HALO XL, was created by Ian Douglas-Jones, a Welsh-born artist. "Traceries brings together artists working at the intersection of kinetic installation, analog photography, material transformation, and urban documentation" – the official technical description. The philosophical one, however, is a bit more complex.

When it comes to art exhibitions, I feel like explaining and describing each installation is futile. Art is something to be experienced in person, yourself; read how the artists themselves talk about their work, unless you're looking for an art critic's opinion, which I am not (officially at least). So, here I simply want to write a quick guide for you to skim through and decide if you want to pay the exhibit a visit while it's still running.

Traceries is a project brought together by six creatives: Ian Douglas-Jones, Alex Damboianu, Anthony Reed & Phillip Reed, Lu Xinjian, and Vasily Betin. The main focus of the exhibition, from my understanding, is how we can create and capture memories through (mostly) light.

This idea is embodied in the main piece by Ian Douglas-Jones, "HALO XL." It is a huge armature that spins in different rhythms, with lights creating meditative patterns that have to be experienced in the moment. What runs through the entire exhibition, however, is the use of some form of photography. With "HALO XL," by using a long-exposure medium-format film camera, the light paths captured over many hours are imprinted on the final photograph as circular wire-like shapes made of pure light; or, well, halos.

The rest of the exhibition captures your attention with other uses of light, photography and technology. Vasily Betin's "PHANEROSCOPY" shows on film (as in for cameras), how the conversation between the artist, light and environment can be captured. As well as Betin's "NOW" timepieces showing displays of time with different philosophical metrics: mortality, recursion, balance and entanglement.

Alex Damboianu's "ORTHODOX ICONS" and Anthony Reed's "CONCRETE REFLECTIONS" both showcase the decay, transformation and birth of something new, each in their own unique way. Damboianu's two large paintings, created using unorthodox (hah) materials such as mold and rust, invoke a sort of uneasy feeling when you look at them. Even if you don't know what was used as "paint," you can clearly see that something is undergoing an active transformation; it cannot be preserved intact. Reed's photograph's focal point is the modern, shining city, but upon a closer look, the frame is an old, "decaying" building. As if it is a natural process of development in our lives, something will always be left behind.

"City DNA / Shanghai No. 20" by Lu Xinjian is a fascinating depiction of our city. Through a hand-painted acrylic grid, he has sort of deconstructed one of the nearby neighborhoods into its simplest shapes. Going from macro scale, with overall shapes and corners, into micro, etching every single detail into his neon map. It is quite fascinating to recognize some of the roads and corners while staring at it for a minute or two.

The exhibition hall is relatively small, ideal for a sweet and short cultural enrichment. Plus, there is some merch, personally created and assembled by the design team.

If you go...

Date: Through March 25, 12:30pm-8pm (Mondays); 10am-8pm (Tuesdays-Sundays)

Guided Tours: 11am & 2pm (Tuesdays-Thursdays, 30mins/session)

Venue: Kainos

Address: 1221 Yan'an Rd W.

延安西路1221号

Some Merch

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  Credit: Brandon McGhee
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  Credit: Brandon McGhee
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  Credit: Brandon McGhee

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