The commonly used phrase “Mind the Gap” cautions pedestrians to avoid a hazard, to look down when crossing platforms or alighting a transit vehicle that nestles gaps in pavement or construction. For many travelers, avoiding potential obstacles is an everyday occurrence. Gaps below foot represent many things: vulnerability, instability, an unknown ecosphere to the other side, inaccessibility. The gap exists in proximation, yet deeply hidden; it exists in the present and past memory, in the realm of experience and imagination. It’s universal, applying to young and old, eastern or western cultures. Through the lens of contemporary Chinese female artists, this exhibition, Mind the Gap, seeks to expose the gaps, to discover that which has fallen through the gaps, or that which bridges the balance between both sides of the gap. We invited artists from several different generations, living in both the U.S. and China, to explore the generation gap, the geography gap, and the cultural gap. The exhibition includes LIN Yan living in Brooklyn New York, CHEN Caroline from Wilmington, Delaware; HU Xiaoyuan, XIE Kun, and DU Meng living in Beijing; and FENG Bingyi living in Shanghai.

Site-specific installation Everywhere, Nowhere was first created for Room - Meng Du’s solo exhibition at Shanghai Museum of Glass. When the visitor first enters the gallery, one can only see a white wall and hear the pigeon whistles from the back. The artist asked a friend to collect the pigeon whistles from the old Hutong areas in Beijing and created a sounds recording as part of the installation. Looking through the peep holes on the wall, one can see a group of pigeons, casted with glass and silver, sitting on concrete columns or directly on sand. Their heads are irregular glass balls, filled with fake pearls. Once walking to the other side of the gallery, the visitor suddenly realizes that all the pigeons are imprisoned in an iron cage. The work is currently in the permanent collection of Shanghai Museum of Glass.

In 2009, Du recreated Everywhere, Nowhere II for group exhibition Mind the Gap at the Delaware Contemporary to reflect her thinking about the generation gap, geography gap, and cultural gap in contemporary society. All the works from previous Everywhere, Nowhere installations have been collected by public institution or private collectors.