From the Ground — Xinwei Che | Artist Exhibitions, Workshops, and Events

From the Ground
Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver, BC (2025-2026)

Artworks: To Hold Myself II, 《土地空》 Grounding Space II
Curated by: Holly Schmidt, Amelia Epp
Photo Credits: Xinwei Che

Installation view of From the Ground, Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026.

To Hold Myself II

Performance-Installation
Duration: 6 months

Materials: 65 Bisque-fired ceramic vessels, clay slip, mineral oxides, water

From the Ground explores the interconnectedness of the natural world and our reciprocal relationship with the ecosystems in which we are embedded. Building on Che's showcase of To Hold Myself I at Richmond Art Gallery, this installation expands her body vessels into a field that evokes geological formations such as canyons, terraces, and riverbeds. The large scale of this work contrasts with the intimacy of seeing Che's fingerprints on every vessel, traces of touch and pressure left by compressing clay on muscle, skin, and bone.

These bisque-fired forms, which remain porous and responsive to moisture, are embedded in trays of raw clay. The six-month duration of this exhibition allowed for many cycles of weekly watering, seeping, and evaporation. Much like the erosion and oxidation of rocks in nature, this installation recorded the passage of time through mineral migration, fracturing, and the carving of grooves into clay bed.

Within the urgency of the climate crisis, From the Ground invited shared dialogue and served as a key educational exhibition for the North Vancouver School District, hosting over 1200 students from September 2025 - March 2026. Che's ceramic installation quickly loses vividness and becomes parched if left unattended. This work asks what we need to do to care for the land that we walk on daily. To Hold Myself II also encourages repeated engagement; every encounter with this installation is different as the clay minerals continually undergo cycles of watering and evaporation.

Xinwei Che, To Hold Myself II. Bisque-fired ceramic vessels, clap slip, mineral oxides, water. Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026.

《土地空》 Grounding Space II

Photo Prints

Materials: Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, wind, rain, sun)

This photo series captures moments from Che's 2022 performance-installation at Treasure Hill, Taipei, where she offered hundreds of hand-pinched local clay bowls to the seasonal rains, wind, and sun on Frontier Plaza. Che conceived of this work as a tribute to the ground, which has witnessed the turns of human history and silently held the weight of urban infrastructure for centuries. These photos embrace decay, erosion, and regeneration and seek to learn from the cyclical nature of ecological time in our current landscape of cascading environmental crisis.

Read more about this series.

Xinwei Che, 《土地空》 Grounding Space II #2. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, water), 2025.

Xinwei Che, 《土地空》 Grounding Space II #4 Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, water), 2025.

Xinwei Che, 《土地空》 Grounding Space II #3. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, water), 2025.

Xinwei Che, 《土地空》 Grounding Space II #5. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, water), 2025.

Xinwei Che, 《土地空》 Grounding Space II. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, water), 2025. Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026.

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Xinwei Che
xinwei.che@gmail.com

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