An “Exit” sign directs where one may take leave. In times of emergency, it is a glowing sign of safety from imminent danger. When one is lost in an unfamiliar place, it shows the way out. And even when one is neither in danger or lost, the “Exit” sign is at least a promise of return, a re-entry sign signaling familiar territory to go back to when moving forward is a struggle.

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In Existing Exits, the exit sign is torn from its usual spatial context, rewritten, and rendered mobile, with an invitation to each viewer to relocate the sign where one sees fit: ‘Where is your exit?’ In answering the question, the viewer actively participates in a meaning-making exercise, where the answers are a continuing, evolving, and recurring eff ort to make sense of one’s existence – especially in the context of pandemic that has severely limited movement, where a lockdown has forced many to stay in one place, and where there is seemingly no (physical) exit.

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- Ren Lopez III

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3 x 36 x 14.5 cm (Lightbox)

6 x 18 x 43 cm (Acrylic box)

LED lightbox, hanging provisions,

acrylic box

2020