HOOK Space is pleased to present Conference of the Winds, a solo exhibition by Chicago based interdisciplinary artist Jiaming You, with exhibition layout by Cristobal Alday, writing done by Francine Almeda.
In You’s newest body of work, Murmuration, the mesmerizing flocking behavior of the European starling becomes both the series’ eponym and a poetic lens through which contemporary systems of migration and collectivity are examined. You, trained as a traditional oil painter working between figuration and abstraction, utilizes a language of custom laser-cut silhouette frames as an extension of her interest in the process of layering as a metaphor for multiplicity. The silhouettes in Murmuration take the shape of starlings themselves and are translated across three materials: mirror acrylic, color-tinted translucent acrylic, and painted wood panels. Arranged to encircle the room as if in eternal flight, the installation requires a constant movement of the viewer to register the transformation of materials from each to the next, flowing with the freedom of the murmuration’s' living counterpart. Upon closer inspection, each bird acts as one piece of a larger story within the personal archive of You’s own migratory fracture, implying a similar defiance to the socio-political boundaries that have shaped their movements.
Thus, Conference of the Winds acts as a map itself. Each “bird” contains fragments tracing of visual inspiration that trace the line between their origins, their origins and current home: fragments of ancient Tian Wen Tu images intertwine with the archived love letters of 20th century Chicago Southside legendary social workers Bernie Lo and Albert Wong, which are overlaid with the colors from their father’s recent fMRI scans. By visualizing these multitudinous worlds within the starling’s flight, You embraces the plurality of their experience, proposing collective movement as a form of embodied protection within contemporary states of transience.
- Francine Almeda
Documentation by Mikey Mosher