Join us for the opening reception of Huidi Xiang: the maxim of the tomato in BICA’s main gallery.

For this exhibition, Brooklyn-based artist Huidi Xiang has created a sculptural installation that transforms the humble tomato pincushion—a ubiquitous sewing tool found in homes for generations—into a poignant metaphor for the contradictions embedded in care work. Traditionally, the tomato has been associated with health, healing, and prosperity, appearing in folklore as a protective charm and in pop culture as a symbol of recovery—most notably as the Maxim Tomato in the Kirby video game series, where it instantly restores a character’s health. But in the form of a pincushion, it becomes a site of puncture, pierced over and over by needles—a vessel of both nurture and violence.