The short version
- Zadie Xa and Benito Mayor Vallejo open a show at The Power Plant in Toronto on October 24 that runs until March 21.
- Among the works is a sculpture of hundreds of brass bells hung from the ceiling in the shape of a conch shell.
- In its first version, at the 2025 Sharjah Biennial, the bells set off a soundscape drawn from a Korean exorcism dance.
The Vancouver-born, UK-based artist Zadie Xa opens her first major solo show in Toronto at The Power Plant on October 24. Made with her longtime collaborator Benito Mayor Vallejo, it carries the long title Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything. Among the works is a mobile sculpture of brass bells suspended from the ceiling in the shape of a conch shell. The gallery counts “over 600” bells. The first version, at the Sharjah Biennial in 2025, was described by the Sharjah Art Foundation as more than 1,000.
In Sharjah the bells stayed silent until someone touched them. Audio monitors built into the work then played a soundscape of folklore, confessions, natural sounds and notes from Salpuri, a Korean exorcism dance. The foundation called these “oracular listening sessions.” The Power Plant’s release mentions sound but does not say whether the Toronto version works the same way.
Around the bells are a hand-painted mural in twilight colours, bronze sculptures by the pair, and Xa’s paintings, some with textile panels that recall Korean patchwork quilts. The show draws on Korean mythology and marine life and was organized with the Esker Foundation in Calgary, where it ran this summer, and PHI in Montréal, where it goes next spring.
The Power Plant is at 231 Queens Quay West in Harbourfront Centre, open Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm. Admission is free. The show closes March 21, 2027.
