Overview

Busy, Busy Towns: Moving Images of a Changing Asia
02 September 2025 - 04 January 2026

This selection of works from the Asia Society Museum Collection explore how rapidly evolving cultural, political, and ecological issues have shaped urban landscapes across contemporary Asia, and in particular China, Indonesia, and Taiwan. The exhibition presents seven works featuring the artists Song Dong, Chen Shaoxiong, Tromarama, and Chen Chieh-jen. The innovative range of styles implemented to produce these moving images—through stop-motion animation of woodcuts, ink painting, or embroidery—among other methods, speaks to the creative depth and diversity of the region. The artists explore the dynamic energy of cities, whether fueled by consumerism and gentrification or by collapsing industries and environmental degradation. Actively reflecting on the regeneration of cityscapes and the subsequent impact on urban lives, these works initiate a renewed dialogue with the current exhibition, (Re)Generations: Rina Bannerjee, Bryon Kim, and Howardena Pindell amid the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection. 

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