Curator Aric Chen has worked across museums, biennials and design institutions in Asia, Europe and the United States. In discussing complexity, he argues against the comforting idea that design always turns a difficult problem into one elegant answer. Many contemporary systems are difficult because interests and consequences genuinely conflict.
A chair can be evaluated through use and construction; a mobility platform or climate intervention also reorganises labour, data and access. The designer who presents only a smooth interface may move complexity out of sight rather than solve it. Curating can bring the hidden chain—materials, workers, standards and waste—back into the room.
Chen’s international career makes translation central. “Asian design” is not one style, and institutions should not use geography as a decorative category. Objects need local histories and cross-border relationships without being forced to represent an entire culture.
Museums face the same tension. A clear exhibition helps visitors enter a subject, but excessive simplification removes uncertainty and debate. Labels, layout and public programmes can support several levels of reading. Accessibility is not the absence of complexity; it is a structure through which different visitors can navigate it.
The curator also has power through selection. Declaring a work innovative can increase market and institutional value, while excluding other practices. Transparency about criteria and collaboration with communities make that authority more accountable.
Chen’s argument is ultimately practical. Complexity should not become an excuse for paralysis or obscure language. Design can still act, prototype and improve conditions, but it should state trade-offs and who bears them. A responsible solution does not promise to make every contradiction disappear; it helps society see and negotiate the contradiction more honestly.
