​Perpetual Morphosis by Dustin Wong

Dustin Wong, video still from Vibra, 2022

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 19, 2022 4:00-8:00pm | Performance Co-presented with Feels Like Floating at 6:00 pm | Free and Open to the Public 
On View: March 19-May 21, 2022​

Inspired by Brion Gysin’s Dreamachines, Japanese soumatou (motorized lanterns of the Obon spirit festivals), and the work of light artist Thomas Wilfred, Perpetual Morphosis evokes the reflective properties and effects of myth and perception. While we readily recognize myth in popular and canonical archetypes, Perpetual Morphosis presents occasions in which we can also discover the mythic significations imaginable in abstract phenomena. By spending time with Dustin Wong’s array of audio-visual rendezvous—or, as mythologist Joseph Campbell would say, getting “tricked into the ritual” of engaging the exhibit— in which scintillating objects concurrently rotate and metamorphize, the viewer may form meaningful relationships to shapes, patterns, and fluctuations of light and color.

This exhibit—stationed in various spaces throughout PRS’ campus and most prominently in its Hansell Gallery—featured multiple installation pieces. Each immersive installation environment invites viewers to take in staggered and continuously looped “video sculptures.” Wong’s video sculptures are made by filming materials placed upon slowly-spinning turntables—a process that seeks to recreate novel textures and evoke in the viewer’s mind correlations between organic materials and eternal archetypes.

The exhibit’s opening reception included a music performance by Wong and BRIN (Colin Blanton), that concluded at sunset. Before and after the performance, attendees were welcome to wander through and spend time in the installation spaces of Perpetual Morphosis.

Dustin Wong was born in Hawaii (1982) and grew up in Tokyo. He studied Film at the California College of Arts in Oakland (2001-2003) and sculpture and performance at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (2003-2005). After graduating from MICA, his creative focus shifted to music. Forming bands (Ecstatic Sunshine, Ponytail) and cultivating solo music projects opened opportunities for him to travel throughout the US and Europe. For over ten years, the themes of Dustin’s work have been interested in the mystical, esoteric, and spiritual and, in recent years, have moved towards the idea of creating a space for healing through sight and sound. To learn more about Dustin and listen to his music, visit https://dustin-clarence-hidetoshi-wong.bandcamp.com/