Studio — environmental

Wen-You Cai, founder and director of Special Special, opened her first solo photography exhibition along with a Special Special pop-up at MGM Macau Resort. The exhibition was accompanied by the release of her photo book "Rooster, Tiger, Sheep by Snake." The exhibition featured a collection of 175 photographs of her family, mostly on film, in black and white and color photographs, taken over the span of a decade through travel and jet-lag, at work, on vacation, and at home.

Special Special presented a playground inspired retail pop-up at MGM Macau featuring playful artworks and products that engaged people of all ages to participate in an intimate shopping experience. The spirited nature of the venue offered an alternative space of engagement and retreat in the casino environment for visitors of all ages. The playground featured an extension of Sarah Verity's Love Hotel Rooms project from the previous year, this time titled Share a Room With Us. Visitors of all ages were encouraged to draw a room they love or to envision their ideal stay at the MGM hotel, and the drawings were presented side by side as a collective installation, along with a written message. With Aria McManus’s Towelkini, Mackenzie Younger’s Jackets, Jenny Hata Blumenfield’s cyanotypes and ceramic sculptures, as well as other elements of previous exhibitions and editions, the playground became a platform that expanded the creative dialogue from Special Special’s New York gallery across the world to Macau. 

Throughout the months of the pop-up, Special Special commissioned new cross cultural art editions such as Lu Zhang’s edition of Lion’s Feet Treasure Bowl, a playful, East-meets-West reintepretation of Lion’s Head and clawed vessels meant to enhance good fortune. Will Doenlen created an installation Without Wind, No Waves, a set of 3D individual playing cards about how randomness shapes our lives and, as a result who we are. The significance of both editions appropriately aligned with the resort and casino setting.