TRANSMUTE! explores the boundary between waste and wonder, transforming materials deemed valueless into objects of beauty and purpose. Through works that celebrate transformation and reincarnation, artists, designers and innovators highlight the creative potential in what society has overlooked, redefining value and inspiring a rethinking of our relationship with materiality.
ARTISTS
BUNGEE SPACE
BIO
Bungee Space is an image study- and image criticism-focused art book store, which also sells coffee, wearable designs, and works as an artist-run space & publisher. Rooting in where we come from, our ways of working, and means to survive, we simultaneously try to pursue independence and sustainability to provide a valuable space for emerging contributors to our art ecology. Standing beyond the conventional definition of a bookstore, we involve, form, and transform communities, intervene social, political, and cultural lives, creating chaos.
WORKS
For the Transmute! pop-up exhibition, Bungee Space presents a curated selection of upcycled wearable designs by innovative designers from across the globe: Adam Jones (London, UK), Elena Marshall (New York, US), JRAT Zero Waste (Seattle, US), KOVA (Shanghai, China), Penultimate (Shanghai, China), SC103 (New York, US), and ZEY (London, UK).
DORKE POELZ
BIO
Dorke Poelz is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She has exhibited her work internationally, including at Carmen Oberst Kunstraum in Hamburg, Germany, and Gary Snyder Fine Art in New York City. In 2000, she collaborated with her husband, artist Luke Gray, on the exhibition “Ort-Place” at Carmen Oberst Kunstraum. Poelz is also affiliated with the Brooklyn Waldorf School.
WORKS
Transparent Dialogue is a series of work that evolved out of research into everyday, transparent materials that can be found in food packaging, household materials, and detritus on the street. After modifying the transparent layers (by pulling, tearing, scratching, twisting, marking etc.), they are mounted in a slide frame and printed as if they were photographic transparencies. The print becomes a recording of how the manipulated materials react to light.
HANNAH HAN
BIO
Hannah Han is an artist and architectural designer living and working in nyc. She graduated with degrees in art and architecture and exhibited in Philadelphia, London, and New York.
WORKS
Yellow Earth: A landscape emerges from a warm palette of fiery hues, blending imagery of forests, flowers, fire, and clouds. This oil painting (visually and in its process) captures the cyclical interplay between destruction and renewal, reflecting nature's resilience and the resulting transformation. Through layered textures and bold tones, it invites viewers to find beauty in impermanence and reconsider the potential within change.
JESSE MCCORMICK, NADIR PUCINELLI-SANNINI
BIO
Jesse McCormick is a New York-based architect, researcher, and educator whose work explores the intersections of land policy and architecture. He serves as an adjunct lecturer at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at City College of New York, where he was the 2022-2023 Spitzer Research Fellow.
WORKS
Kafa: Each page holds the representation of a single MRI scan, the page width corresponds to the distance between the scans. In this way Kafa, contains a 1:1 scale replica of a human head rendered in print and ink. Kafa was commissioned for the 2016 Istanbul Biennale; 'Are We Human'.
JULIAN JOSIAH MACMILLAN
BIO
Painter / Sculptor based in New York
WORKS
LUKE GRAY
WORKS
REHOMING DUNDUN
BIO
Siyang Dai is an anthropologist currently study at Columbia University. She is specialized in museum anthropology, interested in Chinese vernacular culture and ritual practice. Zijun Zhao is a NewYork-based furniture designer, maker, and photographer whose work explores the intersection of design, craftsmanship, and visual storytelling.
WORKS
DunDun is a handmade stool crafted by the villagers of Dameng, made from abandoned heat insulation foam from the construction site where their villages used to be. Through DunDun, we want to share the story of Dameng villagers` loss of home and memorize those “losses” that accompany the urbanization process.
SETH MACMILLAN
BIO
Seth is an award-winning cinematographer and photographer based in Los Angeles, CA. He works as an image maker across mediums in narrative features, commercials, documentary, experimental art films, and still photography.
WORKS
WILL PINKE & SETH MACMILLAN
BIO
Will Pinke is a New York based filmmaker whose stories blend genres in seamless and surprising ways. Will studied Literature, Creative Writing, & Film History/Theory at Princeton University ('14), and received his MFA degree in Directing & Screenwriting from the Columbia University School of the Arts ('22).
WORKS
"The End": In this surreal noir-comedy, Sam (75) an aging, wannabe mystery writer, struggles to finish his first detective novel before it's too late. As he approaches the end, the lines between his real and fictional lives begin to blur. Learn more on Instagram at @aharrypowersmystery.
XIAOXU HAN
BIO
Multimedia Artist & Designer. Born and raised in Huzhou, China. Currently pursuing a Master's degree at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
WORKS
CyberJin is a satirical wearable that critiques modern censorship by reimagining the Ming Dynasty black gauze cap, merging historical symbolism with digital-age commentary through a repurposed toy helmet and mechanical elements. This headpiece bridges past and present, embodying control, visibility, and reinvention themes.