210 canal st, rm 310, new york, ny
fruit labels - mandarin project
03.01 & 03, 2026
xinan helen ran
𝒇𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒔 - 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕
march 1 & 3 at 5:30 pm at gmtc
ticket link -> click here
in a hotel room, an orange becomes a metronome—a witness, a small planet in repeated free fall.
presented at gmtc—golden monkey trading company 金猿商社, artist 𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐧 stages a live essay-performance that slips between two meanings of the same word: mandarin as language and mandarin as fruit—translation as an embodied practice, and identity as a moving target.
born from a quarantine ritual—juggling oranges until the air turns fragrant—the work braids rhythm, citrus scent, and the slippery logic of classification: what gets labeled “mandarin,” what gets carried across, what gets absorbed, and what remains in-between. ran’s thoughts drift through fruit stands, dollar stores, and parade processions, circling the uncanny comfort of “made in china,” and return to a single stubborn question: what is a “cultural thing,” and what is a “me” thing?
poster designed by the artist
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𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐧 creates scalable, research-driven installations and searches for the point where trauma, nihilism, and humor converge. ranked “highbrow and brilliant” by the new york magazine approval matrix, she is a macdowell fellow, a more art commission artist, and a nysca grant recipient, with exhibitions nationally and internationally. xinan is an art educator, set designer, and arts worker based in brooklyn.
xinanran.work
ⓒ gmtc 2025