emergence: Friction as origin

“Friction as Origin” looks at emergence not as a moment of calm arrival but as a dynamic process of tension, resistance and transformative force. This exhibition sees friction, the push and pull between opposing forces, as the generative condition from which new forms, ideas and identities emerge.

Friction is more than conflict or resistance; it’s the spark that disrupts stasis and drives change. In natural systems, physical matter and human experience alike, emergence happens in this charged space between opposing forces where boundaries blur and new possibilities take shape.

The works in this show cross media and disciplines and share a commitment to seeing emergence as an act of becoming that is not smooth or inevitable. Instead they embrace rupture, strain and the productive energy of discord. The exhibition asks the viewer to see how movement, pressure and power play out in the slow dance of transformation.

At its heart “Friction as Origin” challenges the idea of emergence as a passive event and instead frames it as a contested space where the future is forged in tension. The exhibition asks: How do forms and meanings emerge through resistance? What new realities emerge when friction is embraced not avoided? And how does this change our experience of materiality, identity and power?

By seeing friction as the origin of becoming the exhibition is a poetic meditation on the forces that shape our world and invites us to think about the creative potential in struggle, movement and change.

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