Metamorphosis

A moss-colored dragon and an ice butterfly rotate in tilted angles at the National Museum of China's Wang Junyi retrospective. The motorized displays of Wang's jadeite carvings exhibition begin with a walk past seven flat-screen televisions replaying an image of deep space. Around a corner stands Wang's 3-meter installation featuring 13 separate jade carvings suspended by a lattice of strings inside an egg-like structure. But instead of offering a provocative feel, the quirky mobile contraptions distract from Wang's choices in traditional iconography and style, which have an enlivening nature of their own.