At the heart of the joint exhibition Relation, Being at ArtsWestchester, New York, Mingze Gao presents several stunning works that transform human connection into an immersive experience. For Gao, the exhibition’s title is both poetic and deeply personal: “Relation, Being is about recording and expressing how human connection and emotion shape our existence.
Relationships, whether fleeting or enduring, leave deep imprints on identity. I see ‘relation’ as the invisible threads binding us to one another, and ‘being’ as the essence that emerges from those bonds.”
The exhibition bridges traditional philosophy and contemporary art, offering new perspectives on
human connections. The theme is about the fleeting yet eternal nature of relationships and their emotional resonance. The interactivity invites audiences to engage with the art on a sensory and emotional level with immersive experiences. While one of the artists draws from traditional Chinese philosophy and poetry, Mingze Gao focuses on micro-level personal experiences, using installations to examine the transient yet profound impact of relationships. The goal is to connect traditional and modern, macro and micro, and engage audiences in the deeper emotional and philosophical dimensions of human relationships.
This philosophy resonates powerfully in A Hundred Heartbeats, Gao’s ongoing exploration of intimacy and shared rhythm. Each participant’s heartbeat, recorded with a visualization device, is translated into an image across a series of panels. As a painting-based work integrated with an installation, to date, fifty-three heartbeats have been collected, their visual cadence forming a collective portrait of closeness that is simultaneously steady and fragile. The fact that the series remains unfinished is no accident—it is a deliberate embrace of openness, mirroring the unfinished nature of human connection itself.
Another exploring the intimacy relationship is HOURGLASS. In this artwork, Gao turns to video and installation to dive into the paradox of impermanence. “Why do we choose to love, knowing separation is inevitable?” This is the eternal question Gao loves to ask and share his thoughts with the audience. HOURGLASS is a video work that integrates physical installation and performance to examine why we choose connection despite inevitable endings. It asks why we still love and relate knowing separation is certain, and reinterprets impermanence as a source of meaning. But he doesn’t stop here, “I further developed the concept into an installation, What Tomorrow Do We Have Left, a fractured hourglass containing a digital screen that plays a looped video. It functions as a self-portrait, suggesting an unresolved state of being caught within fragments of time.” In this installation, we see a fragment of reinforced concrete with a hollow carved into it, inside of which appears the shadow of a couple—reminiscent of the pair in Hourglass. Unlike Hourglass, which was made from acrylic sheet, white sand, electronic components, and video, What Tomorrow Do We Have Left employs plaster, plywood, a digital screen, and metal pipe. These materials seem to further extend Gao’s ongoing exploration of intimacy and relationships.
Ultimately, Gao hopes audiences leave the exhibition with a renewed sense of how love and relationships give shape to existence. “These installations are meant to open an emotional space where audiences can feel—rather than merely observe—the fleeting yet profound impact of connection,” he reflects. “If they walk away rethinking how they engage with others, or with a renewed appreciation for the beauty of impermanence, then the work has done its part.”
Besides these two well-known works, Gao also presented Dear Fayerbanke I and Dear Fayerbanke II—each consisting of a letter encased within a concrete envelope. “I like that installation work draws attention to a specific space and forms new connections within it,” he explains. Recalling Shi Tiesheng’s reflection in I and the Temple of Earth: Essays from Beijing, Gao resonates with the line:
“I have forgotten nothing, but some things are only meant to be kept. They cannot be spoken of, nor thought about, yet they cannot be forgotten. They cannot be turned into language; they are unable to become language. Once they are put into words, they cease to be what they are. They exist as a hazy blend of warmth and solitude, a ripened mixture of hope and despair. They have only two resting places: the heart and the grave. Like postage stamps—some are meant for sending letters, while others exist solely for collection.”
For Gao, installation art engages with a space at a singular moment in time. It captures our temporal reality while questioning the essence of memory and, ultimately, existence itself. This sensibility underlies his decision to create installation pieces—works that explore intimacy, relation, and being. They invite reflection on how and why we experience, and what such experiences reveal about the nature of our lives. Drawing from these intertwined realities, Gao constructs immersive landscapes where interactivity becomes the very language of emotion.
