This exhibition reintroduces key works in Asia Society Museum's Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of pre-modern Asian art through the lenses of three leading contemporary artists: Rina Banerjee, Byron Kim, and Howardena Pindell. Each artist has selected a number of works in the collection within which to situate their own new and existing works, approaching historic objects in the collection through their practices and from multiple cultures, heritages, and positions. Creating dialogues across multiple histories and places, these artists offer a range of new insights and entry points into the collection. 

As part of the exhibition, Yang Fudong’s seminal and visually arresting five-part video Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, held in the Asia Society Museum Collection, will be installed in a black box gallery. The work follows seven young men and women on journeys in search of their identities and ideal lives, reflecting the many urban, ideological, and economic transformations across China today.