Sept 4-14 Zachary B. Kahn: “Symbol Set”

Symbol Set

An immersive installation by Zachary B. Kahn
Opening at #Hashtag Gallery, Mexico City

Symbol Set is the first public iteration of a new immersive format by Zachary B. Kahn, centered around eight large-scale original works suspended in the gallery space. Painted on translucent plastic sheets using industrial tools and found materials, the works resemble fragments of flags, emblems, or signage. They appear as artifacts from a visual language that feels at once universal and unknowable.

These pieces reference the structure and semiotics of flags, banners, and control systems. They resemble glyphs of governance, belief, and identity. Here, those forms are glitched, broken, or incomplete. The surfaces are raw, marked, and flaking. They absorb and refract light and shift depending on where the viewer stands. A subset of smaller works will also be displayed on the walls, offering further access to the symbolic lexicon at play.

The gallery is treated not just as a space to exhibit, but as an environment to move through. LED tube lighting in warm amber hues heightens the atmosphere, casting a glow across the suspended forms and inviting viewers to linger in the tension between clarity and obscurity. At the midpoint of the opening, ambient guitarist Miky Mendozza
will perform a live set in dialogue with the environment. His sound will weave into the spatial rhythm of the installation.

This is not just a display. It is a test site, a prototype for how artwork can live beyond the wall, and how symbols, once separated from their original systems, can mutate, collapse, or offer entirely new codes.