Lyn Liu

H-Dropping

Kasmin at Casa Siza, Mexico City

February 4 – March 28, 2025

Press Release

Kasmin presents a solo exhibition of new work by Lyn Liu (b. 1993, Beijing), on view at Casa Siza in Mexico City from February 4 through March 28, 2025. H-Dropping consists of 11 paintings that depict contradictory or nonfunctioning states of being, each exploring the psychological experience of the uncanny. The exhibition has been realized by Liu to encompass all three exhibition galleries of Casa Siza, a gallery and residence designed by renowned Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, and coincides with the opening of Zona Maco and Mexico City Art Week. On the occasion of Liu’s exhibition, Kasmin Books will publish a limited-edition, fully-illustrated artist’s book featuring an original text by critic and essayist Jenny Wu.

Liu’s new works are inspired by a linguistic phenomenon found among language speakers across the world, in which dropping the sound of a consonant distinguishes particular dialects. Liu encountered the practice of “H-dropping” when studying English and French—languages she has adopted since living and working in New York and while she attended l’École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Regional and cultural distinctions often determine whether the letter “H” becomes obsolete in the pronunciation of certain words, even if it continues to appear in the spelling. One’s adherence to the practice becomes a marker of their belonging to a particular group, whether by assimilation or alienation.

This is Liu’s second solo exhibition organized by Kasmin, and her first in Mexico, following her debut with the gallery in 2022. H-Dropping also marks Kasmin’s return to Casa Siza after inaugurating the historic home’s exhibition program in 2024.

Each painting in the exhibition captures the sense of disturbance felt when an object’s inability to serve its intended purpose threatens its very essence. Metal weights tug on the hands of a clock, no more useful in telling time than in testing the pull of gravity; a figure’s eyelids are secured shut by transparent tape; a chair with backrests on all sides offers no respite to a potential sitter. Inutilities (2024) presents a still life of defunct objects on a table setting: a candlestick without a wick, a teapot with an upward-facing spout, or a pair of gloves sewn together at the cuffs become striking symbols that pulsate with a nihilist or existentialist philosophy in the vein of Albert Camus and Franz Kafka. These symbols cohere in Liu’s visual universe where the familiar blends seamlessly with the absurd.

In Liu’s paintings, the human and natural worlds often collide in unpredictable circumstances. In Whisper (2024), a bird appears unable to sing with its head engulfed in the mouth of a human figure. Stalemate (2024) pictures the moment just before a horse and a car clash head-on. As if to probe the meaning of the English word “horsepower,” a unit used to measure how quickly a car engine can operate, Liu engages the possibilities of word play and misinterpretation to fuel an atmosphere of suspense that floods the works on view.

Paintings

Publication