October 17 – November 30, 2025
April 15 – June 14, 2026 
10:00 – 17:00
ARTROOT Gallery

*Reservation Only
*Closed: irregularly

The exhibition, titled “Wandering in the Garden”, takes its inspiration from Tang Xianzu’s classical Chinese drama The Peony Pavilion: The Interrupted Dream (《牡丹亭·游园惊梦》). It seeks to explore, through a dialogue between contemporary art and the traditional Eastern garden, the subtle interplay among individual perception, free will, and the order of nature. The exhibition space itself becomes a work of art: the traditional Japanese house and garden embody a sense of time steeped in tranquility and introspection, while Shen Lieyi’s sculptures resemble stones cast into still water, their delicate material ripples awakening the viewer to contemplate the essence of existence.

In The Peony Pavilion: The Interrupted Dream (《牡丹亭·游园惊梦》), Du Liniang breaks through the constraints of ritual and propriety within a dream, awakening to self-consciousness in the embrace of nature — a story that resonates across time with ARTROOT’s ideal of “returning to a pure relationship with art.” The exhibition does not merely replicate a classical narrative; rather, it responds to its spiritual core — the longing for free expression, reflection on established order, and reverence for nature and life — set against the swelling material desires and collective illusions of modern society. Just as Shen Lieyi’s sculptures intervene poetically within a silent space, they metaphorically suggest how art, with gentle yet enduring force, can awaken in individuals a renewed perception of the real world.

As if suddenly awakening from the garden-dream: art is like the hues of autumn — how few truly perceive it. “Wandering in the Garden” is both a physical walk through space and a journey of the spirit. It seeks, amid the accelerated pace of contemporary life, to create a contemplative realm reminiscent of a bygone age, inviting the audience, in the confluence of art and nature, to rediscover the more essential emotions and freedoms long obscured by the noise of the world.