Tending the Trace is a curatorial research project exploring how living and changing materials are observed, interpreted and made public through exhibition-making and documentation.

Structured around three stages — Growth, Threshold and Afterlife — the project brings together field observations, institutional documents, artist-contributed material and curatorial publishing. It considers what happens when biological uncertainty encounters institutional procedures, and how decisions about access, risk, attribution and circulation shape what can remain visible.

The project culminated in a publication and reading-space installation. Rather than presenting living material directly, the exhibition used photographs, records, diagrams and contributed works to trace how material processes are translated into curatorial decisions.

Contributors include Yiki, Elizabeth Riddell, Charles Diaper, Alison Beattie, Sun Yingman and Li Mingyue.