Frieze Los Angeles Booth F04

Make Room is proud to return to Frieze LA with a solo presentation at Focus LA: The Theater of Metamorphoses, an immersive installation by multidisciplinary artist Xin Liu. Featuring a new series of mixed-media sculptures and wallworks, the exhibition expands upon Liu’s ongoing explorations of vitality, mutation, and the human quest for immortality through the lens of technological intervention.

Xin Liu transforms the booth into a metaphorical sacrificial ceremony, reflecting humanity’s enduring beliefs in reincarnation and the drive to transcend the natural limitations of life. At its core, The Theater of Metamorphoses examines how technological interventions—such as cryogenics, egg freezing, and biomedical advancements—disrupt and reshape natural life cycles, offering speculative possibilities for extending existence beyond the human condition.

The centerpiece of the presentation is the triptych The Theater of Metamorphoses, a monumental work that captures the fragile tension between life’s resilience and its impermanence. Inspired by the intricate anatomy of bones and spine-like dragon motifs, the semi-transparent triptych houses a bronze cast of the artist's mouth in its center.A sophisticated cooling mechanism embedded in the work produces a delicate frost on the mouth’s surfaces, evoking subglacial environments like Antarctica’s buried lakes and the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons. This element serves as both a metaphor for humanity’s search for ancient, enigmatic life forms beyond Earth and a reflection of Liu’s exploration of the "aesthetics of failure"—acknowledging the fragility and imperfection inherent in technological attempts to preserve life.

Also featured is a collection of mixed-media wall sculptures that examine humanity’s ongoing manipulation of natural processes. Primula Flowers, 2024 draws from Charles Darwin’s studies on plant reproduction, illustrating the genetic mechanisms that determine the morphology of Primula species. Encased in an industrial aluminum frame, the work integrates silicone, bronze, and a customized cooling system, mirroring the interplay between organic evolution and engineered transformation. Alongside other works inspired by cutting-edge research in biology and medicine, these sculptures underscore our innate desire to sustain and manipulate life, exploring the parallels between natural adaptation and technological intervention.

Through this presentation, Xin Liu immerses viewers in a narrative that questions our relationship with life, death, and the speculative futures that technology—and our cosmic aspirations—make possible. The Theater of Metamorphoses offers a deeply poetic meditation on the tension between preservation and transformation, inviting us to reconsider the limits of our existence in an ever-evolving world.