Flesh of my Flesh
Curated by Baseera Khan
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Flesh of my Flesh is a five person, juried group exhibition whose title is borrowed from a decade-long project by Kaja Silverman, a book of essays, published in 2009. The themes of each essay in Silverman’s writing range from the space between two people, the psychology behind love and desire, and relational constructs that give one their sense of self. The curator looks to the artists in this exhibition to reveal how the femme-identifying body takes on these analogies through the materialities of glass, creating objects that visualize the gaps between exile and kinship. Over time societal mythologies and storytelling have looked to glass and its inherent properties as a raw material to interpret legacies of individuality. One’s ability to see their own reflection can directly influence their care towards the “other.” Using glass as a conceptual lens to complicate dominant narratives of psychology, the artists in Flesh of my Flesh dive deep into personal subject positions to expose the vulnerabilities of movement, modification, and breathing.
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Excerpt from accompanying Digital Essay by Baseera Khan:
Jessi Li graduated from an MFA in Visual Arts at Hunter College in 2019. Lines
of control and corners are a focus for Li as they connect lived experiences to
the concepts of travel. Working in site specific installation for UrbanGlass, Li is
interested in corridors of in-between spaces such as airports, train stations, and
funerary passageways. A maze is sutured to the gallery wall, trapping anyone
who chooses to walk inside the structure to take a closer look at the glass
objects affixed to the baggage claim carousel inspired table top. Li investigates
ideas of errantry: looking for something, but not knowing what it is until one
fully experiences the unknown. In art historically, we see archetypes of male
identifying figures roaming from place to place, having no real agenda other than
self actualization.In Li’s work we are able to see a femme person play out similar
patterns of searching for stability and one’s identity through travel and objecthood.
By forging utilitarian forms out of glass, Pass Away contains three sculptural
elements: a conveyer belt, weapons and bags.
While in China Li spent time understanding death through a foreign cultural lens,
a system of funerary rituals that allow a passing person to leave earth much like
one goes on a road trip, taking only their essentials with them on the journey. The
sculptural weapons incorporate altered, manufactured TSA approved objects
and life casts. Traveling alone as a woman heightens defensive and resourceful
awareness, and these weapons protect from both physical and emotional threats.
Li uses these small scaled vessels and site specific installations as a metaphor for
an all inclusive version of storytelling, an alternative to the hero/action arch found
in the literature of Ursula K. Le Guin. Her book, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,
describes the bag as the original object, which Li follows intently. “My sculptures
hold multitudes, simultaneously referencing protuberances of limbs or concavities
of mouths, as well as useful tools.”