Sound is most often understood as entirely an auditory experience. But it is much more than that. Sound moves through space as vibration, movement and change: light shifts, bodies turn, water trembles, and environments respond. Long before it reaches the ear, sound already circulates through the world in visible and physical ways. Artist Xiaohan Luo’s work draws on her experiences as a hearing-impaired person. Across much of her work, Luo returns to the problem of language when it cannot fully be heard. The artist describes how: “Sound no longer arrives as a continuous or reliable presence. It becomes inconsistent. Some sounds are missed entirely, other appear without a clear source, and many can only be understood after the moment has passed. This shift forces a different way of navigating everyday life, one that depends on reading what is happening through the body and the environment rather than through sound alone.” This lived experience forms the basis of a deeply personal practice, one which invites audiences to step into the artist’s shoes and makes clear that perception is never singular.
Luo’s most recent exhibition, Outsider, Elsewhere, was held at the Handbag Factory in London this March. The works displayed play close attention to how people move, how distance changes, how light shifts across a surface and how spaces respond to activity. Featured works include Red Veil, Number, Language & Sound, A Broken Voice, Am I … I am? and The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (Shī Shì Shí Shī Shî). Here, words break down into rhythm and repetition, and meaning is carried by timing, gesture and pattern rather than clarity. In Number, Language & Sound, sequences and structures replace spoken explanation, whilst A Broken Voice sees communication become delayed and partial.
The exhibition introduced Luo’s latest work, No Traveller Returns (2026), a film developed through field recording and observations across streets, riversides, stations and other transitional environments. The camera documents what is already happening. People pass through the frame, pause, change direction, or gather. Movement builds and disperses. These changes begin to suggest events that are not fully accessible, viewers may sense that something has happened but cannot confirm it through sound alone. Instead, they rely on the same cues that the artist works with: movement, distance and timing. Red Veil, meanwhile, brings contemporary dance in dialogue with eastern visual traditions. The film sees red fabric draped over the lens, casting every scene in a deep hue. According to USA Art News, “throughout the film, the veil moves between being an object, a boundary and an extension of the body, shifting meaning as the choreography unfolds.”
Outsider, Elsewhere is not about the absence of sound. It is about how sound continues to exist when it cannot be fully heard. Luo’s work shows that it is possible to understand what is happening through a combination of signals: vibration, movement and the behaviour of people within a space. These are not substitutes for sound, they are part of it. What the exhibition makes clear is that perception goes beyond one singular experience, it is constructed, negotiated and, often times, uncertain.
Find out more about the artist: @__hanhl_21
Words: Emma Jacob
All images courtesy of the Xiaohan Luo.
