SCOTT CAI

Soft Barriers

Sanderson are pleased to present the exhibition Soft Barriers by Scott Cai

Scott Cai’s latest exhibition Soft Barriers extends his practice in both material and context, exploring and representing North America in photographs, alongside a new foray into ceramics, object design and sculpture.

Soft Barriers is primarily driven by Cai’s images captured during an extended period of travel through the United States. Most were shot in Los Angeles and some from the East Coast. The artist spent a lot of time on the road, and while clearly reflected in the images, this also subtly guides how we navigate the conceptual terrain. Known for his ritual wanderings on foot, here Cai takes to the automobile, a technology inextricably linked to histories of American photography, and to the wider transformation and proliferation of the medium.

Here, these photographs of America are placed in relationship with new images produced in Aotearoa. In many cases, their titles comfortably locate them; at other times, their geography appears more ambiguous and uncertain. Selected images could easily be taken in either country, which may give one pause for thought.

This may also reveal how expansive, even colonising, our shared systems of industrial, urban and suburban design may be, particularly in the West. On the other hand – even in his most austere and abstracted compositions – the local vernacular creeps in, offering visual clues to their geographical and cultural locations.

Cai speaks of his photographs – and by extension himself – as being “in and out of place”. Cai is a Chinese-New Zealand artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He was born in Changsha, Hunan Province, and moved to Beijing at age eight. At sixteen he moved to Los Angeles to attend high school, and then Boston for a degree in Engineering. He relocated to Aotearoa in 2013, and in 2019 completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photo Media at Whitecliffe College. He has travelled through South East Asia, China, Japan, Australia and the US. For the artist, Tāmaki Makaurau now represents one home among others.

The influence of this early uprooting, travel and cross-cultural exchange informs his hybrid identity and sense of being “in between”, as he puts it. In this exhibition, Cai’s identity and lived experience frames the tension of being at once inside and outside a community or culture, familiar and unfamiliar, a local and a tourist.

Reflecting on the exhibition title, one might first think of barriers as material and prohibitive, such as in City of Industry with its high fence covered in razor wire. One might also think of ‘softer’ barriers, such as language barriers, or other obstacles or circumstances operating within societies and groups. However, beyond conceptions of barriers as merely preventing movement or access, they also have the consensual capacity to shape and direct human behaviour.

One concrete example is the ubiquitous ‘road cone’. These operate as shared signs across cultures, indicating which areas or pathways are safe to traverse, and which may not be permitted. Not that everyone plays by the rules implied by their presence. Cai has found himself photographing road cones for years, alongside similar orange high-vis traffic barrier systems. They also feature in two artworks from 2023, New North and Surrey Cres.

Cai has observed that Aotearoa appears to have far more road cones than other countries he has visited. For some, the cone may be read as emblematic of constant roading projects, public frustration with the impacts of civic construction, and debates about local and central government spending. The cone might even be understood as an unconscious embodiment of the state – and hence perhaps why so many are lost or damaged – or ending up in unlikely places, such as mounted atop public sculptures as creative pranks, or taking pride of place as ‘appropriated’ trophies in student flats.

In this exhibition, Cai has constructed his own ceramic cones as small sculptures. The artist made a 3D printed model based on a sample purchased at a local hardware store, used to make a mould from which casts were formed in clay. Beyond the iconic orange colour (‘Persimmon’ in this case), Cai also glazed others in the commercial colourways Mint, Snow, Blossom, Pink, Ocean and Cosmo. Some are also functional as vases for floral arrangements, and pivot into object design. Cai reflects that, while some members of the public may mistreat road cones, his sculptures were constructed with care, and can be valued and cared for. He refers to them as “vessels” which have become “domesticated”.

Returning to Cai’s photography, it is also informed by his Vipassanā practice, an ancient meditation technique with origins in Buddhism, aiming to cultivate mindfulness and the pursuit of higher levels of consciousness. Vipassanā practice seeks to guide attention, cultivating a grounded awareness attuned to perception. In keeping, Cai’s photographs are characterised by a sense of stillness, quietly drawing attention to our immediate surroundings, a minimalist and poetic sensibility captured in the ever-shifting light of the present moment. Writer and curator Nina Dyer notes:

“Cai isolates commonplace details for his viewer to see in a new light. His work encourages a shift in attention – transporting the viewer into a mode of observation. Momentarily lifted from the noise of modern living, the artist reveals the beauty of vernacular compositions through his heightened perspective.”

The artist reflects :

 “At the core of my practice is a desire to highlight the unnoticed details of life — small, seemingly insignificant elements that, when observed closely, can produce moments of delight, surprise and sometimes playfulness. Through my work, I hope to offer a brief respite from the pace of daily life and invite viewers to slow down and take notice.”

Certain photographs may also communicate a sense of the ironic or uncanny, underpinned by visible tensions between human life, natural ecologies and the fragile geometries of the built environment. Here, road markings echo gestural painting, such as in Amity Street, Hand Signal and Road Gesture; while architecture and industry echo geometric abstraction, such as in Homegoods, Route 66, Michillinda Avenue and Sears Way.

Cai’s work traverses the terrain while making it strange. This exhibition reveals that real or perceived barriers between cultures, places and people may be softer than we thought.

– Emil McAvoy, September 2026