Self—ish

In an era defined by digital surplus, our sense of self is increasingly fragmented and recomposed into data traces through platforms designed to surveil.

**Self—*ish***, the first major solo exhibition by art duo XJ (Xin Wen and JJ Agcaoili), explores how the subjective self is constructed, compressed, and now mimicked by the technologies we inhabit.

Notable for their methodology of working in between the physical and the digital, XJ brings together five works across projection-mapped installation, moving image, and kinetic sculpture. Moving between physical interaction and algorithmic abstraction, these works embody how the self is both turned inward and constantly exposed.

The title **Self—*ish*** captures this tension: it evokes the introspection of being alone with oneself, but also the way our personal gestures are always observed, recorded, and interpreted by external forces to grasp at an approximation of personhood. The infrastructures that promise agency are shaped by selfishness and technological determinism: forces that extract from the very selves they appear to empower.

**Self—*ish*** reflects the ambiguous space of the digital self, where solitude, self-expression, and exposure coexist, and where identity is both something we claim and something that is claimed for us. What happens to our sense of self when identity becomes a performance, existence requires maintenance, and the real becomes eclipsed by the artificial?

Curated by Ruoxi Gao for the Helix Art Space. Co-developed with Yul Cho and Daniel Daboczy.