Producer | Time Lag Group Exhibition

Sasse Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA

March 4 - 31, 2025

Time Lag indicates the interval between one arrival and the not yet arrival of the next. It is a common calculation among the travelers, especially those crossing borders, literal and metaphorical; the expected synchronization that never fully arrives. It is not simply a depiction of “in-betweenness,” nor is it emphasis of difference. It reflects a quasi-arrival yet a keen desire for complete transition, colliding with the ambiguity and disorientation derived from a partial absence.

The exhibition, Time Lag, traces three stages of this longing: the liminality between dreams and reality, between collective memory and individual diasporic narrative, and between the rationality and chaos.

Dream and Reality: From The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean, where a poor rural boy trades his only cow for a handful of magic beans that grow into a beanstalk reaching the clouds, to Sigrid Qian’s thorned stalk canvases, in which goose-yellow yet mysterious forms stretch toward interstellar space. In essence, this section opens a threshold between fantasy and materiality. The works resonate with the sensation of an arrived reality shadowed by vague delusions that repeatedly surface in the subconscious. Surreal imagery and fragmented narratives challenge our understanding of what it means to arrive.

Collective Memory and Individual Narrative: The artists in this section present aspirations and struggles embedded in transitional phases of cultural hybridity. Rooted in the Asian art diaspora, the exhibition carries forward narratives shaped by collective memory and mother tongue yet refracted through individual experience. Jennifer Ling Datchuk’s video work presents the crucial and provocative process through which society “tames” the gendered body, symbolized by the saddle-like braided hair. In Yezi Lou’s canvases, gazes turn back toward lived experience and childhood imagery—Pokémon and Ultraman—now estranged and alienated. Hannah Bang’s performance also reveals the presence of creativity within her embodied experience as she navigates new environments and communities. What remains is an embodied sensation of displacement, a condition in which, like many in the Asian diaspora, is persistently regarded as the perpetual foreigner.

Rationality and Chaos: Time Lag also moves beyond temporal transition to examine spatial perception. Material and geometric objects exist within rational space, yet perceived space becomes unstable and disordered. Through works by Shuai Xu, moments of geometric clarity coexist with fragmented installations, reflecting a world that oscillates between order and disorientation.

The exhibition begins at Sasse Museum, yet its inquiry extends far beyond the site. It invites viewers to look back at the transitions unfolding in the present, between arrival and absence.

Text by Huixian Dong, Ph.D.

Exhibition Dates
March 4 – 31, 2026

Venue
300 South Thomas Street, Pomona, CA 91766

Curator
Huixian Dong, Ph.D.

Artists
Hannah Bang, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Yezi Lou, Sigrid Qian, Shuai Xu

Curatorial Assistant
Xinyue Zhang, Jianing Lu

Producer
Webson Ji

Gallery Hours
Friday – Sunday | 1 PM – 4 PM

Support
Asian Artists Center, Sasse Museum of Art

Time Lag, Installation view, Courtesy of Asian Art Contemporary

Time Lag, Opening reception, Courtesy of Asian Art Contemporary