Maia Ruth Lee’s solo exhibition at Tina Kim Gallery, Double Vision, invites us to embody the interval. Her works, with their grid-like patterning and illegible glyphs, explore the act of translation itself, a process that never arrives in its final form.

Much like her parents, Bible translators who moved to Nepal, Lee’s exhibition underscores the fluidity of migration. The motifs of migration, inspired by the luggage at Kathmandu airport, mutate across the gallery, taking on different forms as they stack or expand. In B.B. Tetris, for instance, the canvases suggest playfulness, while Expandable Luggage evokes the heavier, more laborious aspects of migration.

Here, translation acts as a metaphor for the movement and transformation of ideas and individuals. Some things carry across, while others are left behind. Lee’s works invite us to reflect on our own journeys, questioning what we take with us and what we must leave behind.

Through her art, Lee challenges us to embrace the continual process of transformation and the transient nature of our understanding. As we move through life, so too do the motifs and meanings we carry. In embodying the interval, we find a way to navigate these changes, making sense of our shifting identities in a world in constant flux.