Lin Xu’s Oasis is an exploration of memory, dreams, and the processes that shape the human brain through a delicate balance between choice and chance. Xu constructs her intimate sculptural objects through multiple stages of addition and subtraction, bringing together elements shaped by her hand with studio discards and found materials: decorative porcelain flowers and doll faces, or swirls of clay left from trimming thrown shapes on the potter’s wheel. Xu’s clay objects evoke cycles of re-birth, metamorphosis, and a constant state of transformation. Stemming from her research into neuroscience, Xu draws parallels between the physical characteristics and malleability of these clay objects, with the human mind’s capacity for memory; clay holds information and responds to shaping in ways that are both predictable and unexpected, and maintains a body that is at once fragile and resilient.