Near to the Wild Heart
2025.07.26 - 2025.09.06
Artist: Xinyu LONG
Curator: Leslie DONG
Cub_ism_ Artspace is pleased to announce the inaugural solo exhibition Near to the Wild Heart by artist Xinyu LONG, featuring over 10 paintings.
Imagine, one day, you find yourself lost in the wilderness — a place ill-suited for fragile human existence, where every tree, forest, and rock has existed in its own way for millennia. As you navigate through it, you become entangled in the dense network of branches, while leaves swaying in the breeze graze your neck — the wilderness is, in fact, a beast brimming with curiosity about humanity, gently licking this uninvited guest. While humans construct civilization through order, 'wildness' is perceived as a hostile force. For millennia, in their quest to conquer or even eradicate 'wildness,' people have ceaselessly indoctrinated one another with reason and discipline, preparing rigid survival rules for you and everyone else to ensure civilization's uninterrupted continuation into the next centuries.
Nevertheless, it is exceedingly difficult to divest oneself of this nearly innate, primitive 'wildness.' Prolonged urban dwelling, where deep streets and towering skyscrapers obstruct your vision, where your skin comes into contact only with concrete, glass, plastic, and steel, and where the air is thick with the smells of cigarettes, perfume, and gasoline, will inevitably lead to an unexplained yet profound weariness. As a species fundamentally constituted of flesh and blood, humanity has grown increasingly estranged from nature. You begin to recognize your former hubris —a fervent self-assurance that fixated your attention solely on human creations while deliberately disregarding all connections with the nature. You cannot recall the precise moment when you ceased to gaze upward at the stars, passively accepting their fading brilliance. “The blinding of the stars is only one aspect of this retreat from the real. In so many ways, there has been a prising away of life from place, an abstraction of experience into different kinds of touchlessness… We have come increasingly to forget that our minds are shaped by the bodily experience of being in the world — its spaces, textures, sounds, smells and habits — as well as by genetic traits we inherit and ideologies we absorb.” Finally, you come to realize that you have willingly plunged yourself into this wilderness.
You press forward, and a semi-transparent figure emerges before you—her features obscured. 'A spirit?' you wonder silently. As she draws nearer, you pause to observe. What a beautiful yet untamed form. When her face comes into view, recognition strikes — you see your mother? Your grandmother? Or perhaps yourself? All of them. She embodies every mother, daughter, and wife. A profound 'maternal' essence radiates from her—an indescribable quality, perhaps existing not as a concrete trait but as the very fact of feminine existence. Your thoughts crystallize: her presence is too complex yet too pure. Her eyes, nose, lips, forehead, and ears all exude 'maternal'; her arms, thighs, and bosom pulse with 'wildness'. The thought surfaces unbidden: she is “a perfect animal”. This is the seed of understanding. Yes, yes — you have discovered the truth. 'Wildness' and 'Maternal' are the very essence of the earth, the forces that birth all things. From the moment you stepped into this wilderness, it recognized you — you, like all living things, are its offspring. Your ancestors departed from here; now you return. The 'wildness' and 'maternal' flowing through your blood, after traversing countless generations, still call to you — and you finally hear their voice: 'Home'.
Your speech falters, her face and the faces of the others blurring in your vision. A splitting headache engulfs you, your ears filled only with the thunderous pounding of your heart. You could feel within yourself the presence of a perfect animal. Returning home, you find yourself barely able to grasp your paintbrush. Looking down, you realize your hands have transformed into the claws of a beast — no one knows when this change began. A distant sea breeze sweeps past, and you imagine its journey through all the places it touches: passing over buildings and streets, carrying the scent of humanity into the wilderness; and surely, it must also bring the essence of the wild back to the city. As you ponder this, your heart pounds louder and louder, each beat more fervent than the last.“She was alone. She was unheeded, happy and near to the wild he
“She was alone. She was unheeded, happy and near to the wild heart of life.”
