Saya Woolfalk

Saya Woolfalk looks to science fiction and fantasy to reimagine the world in multiple dimensions. As the daughter of a Japanese mother and African American father, Woolfalk investigates the complexity of cultural hybridity. She has established a rich, multisensorial studio practice devoted to “The Institute of Empathy”. This speculative group of “Empathics”  undergoes elective chimerism to merge their DNA with plants, in order to create a utopian society. The work is dizzyingly beautiful and the Empathics’ physical transformation is a powerful parable for cultural hybridity and societal change. Woolfalk’s works are featured in the permanent collections of major institutions, including New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, and the Seattle Art Museum, where her major multi-media installation, commissioned and acquired by the Museum, is on extended view. She studied at Brown University in Providence and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Woolfalk's “Empathics”, a speculative group who undergoes elective chimerism to merge their DNA with plants, have “lent” us their Visionary Reality Portal (originally commissioned in 2019 and debuted in Paris), a digital meditation chamber for the people of Hong Kong. Fusing a range of cultural inspirations, from African Nkisi to Western Christian tradition, Visionary Reality Portal is comprised of two kaleidoscopic videos that evoke the stained glass of France’s magnificent cathedrals and display kinetic, colourful projections of mandalas, flora, fauna and Empathics figures, along many decorative motifs found throughout Peninsula properties. In the same way that stained-glass windows act as portals for believers to experience the spiritual realm – Woolfalk’s digital portal aims to foster meditation and the quiet contemplation of other worlds. The videos are created using a combination of hand painted paper, live action video, and 3D animation. For its 2024 debut, Visionary Reality Portal is installed in a specially built space at The Peninsula Hong Kong, offering easy access for the public to enjoy.  

Discover more about the Art in Resonance programme.