LONDON.- Alita Li’s Metamorphosis at Hackney Gallery unfolds as a field of sculptural installations animated by tension, suspension, and fragile equilibrium. Across the gallery, organic materials encounter industrial fragments and elements of the built environment, manifesting as arrangements that appear simultaneously precarious and strangely harmonious. These gathered works often resemble ritual objects, symbolic landscapes, or even bodily systems that occupy a threshold between states: growth and decay, stability and rupture, compression and release.
One could argue that the exhibition begins with Zhen, a work resembling an inverted tree branch visible from the street even before entering the gallery. Its form recalls not only a root formation but also something anatomical, evoking a network of veins that imply the circulation of vital force within a living entity. In this context, the piece becomes a talismanic vessel (further reinforced by the metaphysical associations of the attached crystals), allowing a spirit to channel and preside over the crossing from the outside world into the exhibition.
Suspension emerges as one of Li’s central strategies for generating both visual and psychological tension. In Approach, a corroded columnar mass held only by a tenuous thread hangs above a weathered slab bearing a smaller bound form. The tethered configuration evokes a halted pendulum, as if time itself has stalled. The space between the hovering metal and the flint below becomes the true subject of the work. This zone of anticipation suggests the looming possibility for a charged and transformative collision that may or may not ever arrive.
A similar tension is echoed by In Between. A wrapped stone is wedged between a fractured metal ring, with each semi-circle segment attached to a diametric metal plate. The upper arc assumes the proportions of a handle, while the lower comprises an extended studded plate pressing against the stone. The work appears slightly misaligned, as if the elements no longer fit together as intended. The fractured ring symbolizes a desire for closure (which would inevitably collapse onto what lies inside), while the extended lower plate insistently pushes beyond its boundaries. Caught between compression and resistance, the stone is left in a precarious, unresolved state.
Two of the exhibition’s most spatially commanding works, Entangle and Mountain, emerge as leading pieces, offering contrasting yet complementary explorations of material, form, and dimensional interplay. Entangle appears as the skeletal frame of a teepee-like construction, consisting of wooden beams carved with geometric grooves that reveal an industrial manipulation of an earth-derived resource. Curved metal fragments recovered from London’s canals weave through the structure, assuming an eerily organic, almost-living quality, while the wood takes on an architectural rigidity. The contrasting elements seem to exchange identities, blurring distinctions between the natural world and the urban realm.
Mountain, by contrast, presents a softly contoured mound of woven burlap installed directly on the floor, topped with scattered seeds, twigs, and flower petals. The work reads as a topographic composition observed from an aerial perspective, placing viewers in an almost omniscient position. Yet, what lies beneath the folded fabric remains a mystery from all angles, revealing the limits of our perception and prompting speculation about the hidden layers beneath. This work serves as a meditative dialogue with the natural world, recalling the land-based installations of Ana Mendieta, who merged bodily presence with earthly terrain to depict landscapes as a living archive of temporal processes. Similarly, Li’s work proposes that terrestrial formations carry the imprints of time, memory, and transformation.
Ultimately, Metamorphosis leaves viewers with a heightened awareness of how the world around us can remain unstable without losing coherence. Her pieces often appear in flux, revealing how small adjustments in orientation, contact, or proximity can alter perception and meaning. Through the convergence of organic and industrial elements, the ensemble of works constructs a universe governed by constant negotiation. Rather than presenting transformation as a singular moment, Li reveals it as a gradual condition, arising from the subtle accumulation of encounters, resistance, and realignment.
