sitnaltA: Chimera in a Vat

Hypha Gallery 2, Sugar House Island, 107 High Street, E15 4QZ
Private View: Thursday, 17 July 2025, 6–9 pm
18 July – 23 August 2025
Thursday – Sunday, 12–6 pm
Hypha Gallery 2, Sugar House Island, 107 High Street, E15 2RB

sitnaltA: Chimera in a Vat marks the third instalment of Project sitnaltA, a curatorial initiative that employs speculative fiction and worldbuilding as methods to explore sociocultural and philosophical issues that humanity may face under rapid technological and environmental change. Set in a fictional 27th century, when rising sea levels have driven humanity into virtual worlds, this exhibition unfolds in an imagined undersea sanctuary that redefines the boundary of life.

The exhibition brings together a group of emerging London-based artists whose works explore the metamorphosis and symbiosis of natural and artificial entities. These “chimeras” – hybrid life forms composed of animals, plants, microbes, and industrial or technological residues – collectively form a fluid, metabolic system in a former industrial site.

Presented through distinct sets of exhibition pamphlets, Chimera in a Vat invites visitors to experience the exhibition through two parallel narrative frameworks. Facing a post-apocalyptic future, one narrative suggests a hopeful possibility where hybrids of organic and inorganic entities evolve into new forms of life. In contrast, the other interpretation indicates that this so-called “sanctuary” is merely an idealized simulation of future generations’ wishes.

The dual structure offers a dialectical lens into the future, where destruction and rebirth are two sides of the same coin. It foregrounds a tension between hopeful resilience and escapist tendencies inherent in utopian imagination. Critically reflecting on the role of speculative fiction in constructing alternative futures, the exhibition invites viewers to interpret these conflicting visions on their own terms.

Following sitnaltA (March 2025, The Handbag Factory) and sitnaltA: 1,2,3, Alt! (April-May 2025, Hypha Gallery Marble Arch), Chimera in a Vat concludes seven months of practice and research led by curators Serena Xinran Gao and Alex Xiaonan Guo. Alongside the artworks, this exhibition features archival material that traces the project’s conceptual development and its engagement with philosophical questions of reality, history, memory, and identity, complementing sitnaltA’s fictional world.

Curators
Serena Xinran Gao (@serena_xrgao)
Alex Xiaonan Guo (@archimbaldi666)
The artist lineup will be announced shortly on the project’s Instagram account @sitnalta_2702.