For the last day of classes, join us for an in person celebration, including a divination workshop with X.S. Hou, light bites and music.

What might chance reveal about reality? Could it be more than noise? The cosmology behind the I-Ching has treated chance as a meaning-making technology for millennia.

In their silk-based practice, X.S. Hou brings together I-Ching divination, Physarum polycephalum slime mold, and debris scavenged from the urban environment, assembling three agencies in negotiation. The resulting works record how these agencies meet, making visible the material, biological, and cosmological forces that ordinarily escape our perception.

In this workshop, participants will engage directly with the materials and procedures of Hou’s practice: I-Ching divination, silk and 水墨 (shuǐ mò) ink painting with mineral pigments, live slime mold cultivation, and salvaged debris. Selected passages from Zhuangzi are read alongside the practice. Participants take a living culture home to continue tending. Through this shared practice, Hou invites participants to feel where anthropocentric will reaches its limits, and to attend to the material agencies our extractive habits render invisible.

@_vi_xs_ is an artist whose installations, drawings, and sculptures explore conceptions of wuwei, agency, and the sanctity of material through a Daoist ontology. They work with ephemeral materials and living systems – live Physarum polycephalum slime molds, bioplastics, and electronics. Hou holds a BA in Architecture from Wellesley College, with a Minor in Design from MIT. Recent exhibitions include solo and group presentations at ONX, 120710 Gallery, Jewett Arts Center, Offline Gallery, Plexus Projects, Bushel Collective, Fourth World Festival, and p_a_l_l_a_s. Their work has been featured in Artnet, ArtNews, Metal Magazine, and Whitehot Magazine, among others.