When sculptor Shirley Tse was asked by her former student Anna Hrund Másdóttir to create a new exhibition for her cooperative gallery Kling and Bang in Reykjavik, her first instinct was to bring in her friend and former teacher, film and video artist Dana Berman Duff, as a collaborator.
The two artists share longstanding interests in geography, landscape, desire and time, and their project became a striking evocation of physical forces — breath, moon and tides — that connect human experience to the wider universe.
Working together under the name “Relational,” Tse and Berman Duff first presented The Universe Breathes Us at Kling and Bang in 2025, then brought it to Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles this summer. Both presentations featured a live choral performance of an original song by Berman Duff and her husband, composer-musician Alan Duff Berman. On seeing it for the first time, I was taken by the understated nature of each component and the quietly fluid way they activate one another.
In Tse’s photograph “Orkney Moon” (2025), a soccer ball wrapped in rice paper sits in a green summer field on a Scottish island. Transformed into a moon, it appears again in a group of sculptures installed in the main gallery, framed by Duff’s video projections on the opposing walls. In “The Other Side of the Moon Is Not Dark” (2025), a huge moon turns slowly, while in “The Breathing Ocean (Portal)” (2026), the moon intersects with footage of the original Icelandic choir, which breaks apart into something like northern lights.
In a nearby room, film and sculptural components come together in the unexpectedly affecting installation Sun and Moon (2025). Hanging by thread from the gallery ceiling, Tse’s rice-paper moon throws shifting shadows in the white light from Duff’s 16mm projector. Meanwhile, the tail end of a large reel of film flutters continuously.
I have followed and written about both Tse and Duff for more than 20 years, and The Universe Breathes Us felt like an invigorating new departure. On August 4, we met at the gallery to discuss it. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
