Solo Art Exhibition: Xinan Ran “Point and Click” | Essex Flowers
Fri, May 22
|Essex Flowers
Xinan Helen Ran (Pearson College UWC ’13) presents "Point and Click", her fourth solo exhibition with Essex Flowers, on view from 22 May to 21 June at the gallery’s Chinatown location in Lower Manhattan.
Time & Location
May 22, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Essex Flowers, 19 Monroe St, New York, NY 10002, USA
About The Event
Xinan Helen Ran | Point and Click
May 22 - June 21
Opening Reception: Friday, May 22, 6-8pm
Essex Flowers presents Point and Click, Xinan’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. Presented in the back space are several material explorations that began with a slow and gradual curiosity about the egg-yolk-like form hidden inside early computer mice.
The work considers an early moment in digital navigation, when friction, weight, and touch were first translated into virtual movement. The trackball was one of the last interfaces where this transformation remained visible and tangible: a neutral toned, rubber-coated steel sphere that could be removed, held, cleaned, and played with during Computer Science. Rolling freely within a confined structure engineered precisely for its size, the sphere converts physical motion across a surface into movements across a screen.
Between a machine component and a “vital organ”, the mouse ball resembles an eyeball or joint…