Twelve Trailblazing Women Artists Transform Interior Spaces in ‘Dream Rooms’ — Colossal

With its roots in the conceptual and immersive experiments of the Dadaists and Surrealists in the early 20th century, installation art emerged as its own genre in the late 1950s. The approach gained momentum during the next couple of decades, usually revolving around site-specific responses to interior spaces. Taking many forms, installations sometimes incorporate light, sound, projections, performances, and participatory or immersive elements.

“While many of these works were made by women, histories of art have
tended to focus on male artists,” says a statement from M+ in Hong Kong, which is currently presenting Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s-Now. The show “addresses this imbalance by foregrounding the visionary contributions of women artists.”

Dream Rooms features 12 room-scale installations created by artists located across four continents. Originating at Haus der Kunst München in 2023 with the title Inside Other Spaces, the exhibition then traveled to M+, where the artworks have been reconstructed.

Some pieces date back several decades, like Yamazaki Tsuruko’s “Red (shape of mosquito net)” from 1956 and Aleksandra Kasuba’s “Spectral Passage” from 1975. “The exhibition explores forms and ideas that speak to their time, while also encouraging visitors to explore, laugh, wonder, or embrace feelings of unease,” the museum says.

Three new works have been commissioned from three Asian artists specifically for this exhibition. These include Pinaree Sanpitak’s “The House Is Crumbling,” which was first conceived in 2017 and is reimagined for Dream Rooms. Chiharu Shiota’s “Infinite Memory” features a cascade of the artist’s signature red string, and Kimsooja’s atmospheric “To Breathe” is composed of translucent film on window that diffracts the light into prismatic patterns around the museum.

Dream Rooms continues through January 18, 2026. Find more on the museum’s website. You might also enjoy exploring more site-specific work by women artists featured in Groundswell: The Women of Land Art.