"Hanging by a thread has never felt so purposeful… King’s suspended installations embody that fragile tension—tethered, albeit tenuously, yet with convincing purpose. Suspension isn’t passive here; it’s strategic. Its inherent instability demands focus, testing our collective obsession with control and permanence.

Aurelia King’s Irrational Mapping (2024) lingers in the gallery foyer, unsteady but poised. Two large sheets of layered rice paper hang from the ceiling, suspended by seven red threads, tied together with four neat bows. A map? Perhaps. But it is faceless, emptied out, wiped clean. Cartography is nowhere to be found. Maps typically signify control—simultaneously dictating space and asserting ownership.

Yet, unlike the rigid, immutable geography we are conditioned to trust (that digital map ever-present in our back pocket), King’s grid dances across the white expanse in a wobbly, hand-placed rhythm. The crisscrossing red threads evoke Taiwanese calligraphy paper, a reference to the artist’s cultural heritage. Here, the familiar coordinates of North, South, East, West dissolve, unmooring us from the Cartesian logic that often fixes our sense of place. The grid sags, threatening to collapse—an instability welcomed by King, even desired.”

Excerpt from MassMemo Review by Siri Wingrove, Curator.