Exhibition by Jinseok Choi and Victoria Aravindhan
April 6th—May 11, 2024
Opening: Saturday April 6th, from 2-5pm
Gallery Hours: Saturday April 13th, 20th, 27th, May 4th 2pm-5pm
May 11th Closing 12 – 2pm will be first activation of the book FUTURE/PRESENT published by Duke University Press from ArtChangeUS, edited by Daniella Alvarez, Roberta Uno, Elizabeth M. Webb in lieu of the closing of My Shed Skin Becomes A Mask, a two person show by Jinseok Choi and Vickie Aravindhan.
My Shed Skin Becomes A Mask explores iconography prominent in East Asian, South Asian, and Southeast Asian mythologies, and the ways in which they have been decontextualized/reinstated/aestheticized in the Western canon. This project attempts to seek out the transformative potential for faces and characters in folklore to manifest future subversive pseudo-mythologies as means of inquiring into one’s subjugated personal history or coping with the precarious socio-political landscape within the US as told through the lens of 2 immigrant artists. Jinseok Choi and Vickie Aravindhan focus on the inherently paradoxical use of traditional masks. The wearer is revealed by hiding; the wearer is scared by becoming their own fear; the wearer connects with others by setting a boundary, a complex survival tactic used by ancestors, as well as immigrant and marginalized communities.
Jinseok Choi is an interdisciplinary artist who investigates our current cultural moment by researching historical and cultural contexts and weaving together seemingly unrelated issues via sculpture, installation, performance, and video. His recent works have been shown at various art venues in South Korea and the U.S., including Amado Art Space, Human Resources Los Angeles, The Box, and Werkarts. He has participated in multiple residency programs, such as Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, The Studios at Mass MoCA, and Vermont Studio Center. As a public event organizer deeply involved in local art scenes, he co-founded an artist-run space, Space 1, in Seoul, South Korea, in 2012, and also a mobile project space, MOTOR, in Los Angeles, in 2021. He received his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2018 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Vickie Aravindhan (b.1993) is an Indian-Chinese Singaporean who employs the use of iconography and narrative prominent in Indian and Chinese mythology in her practice which point to hybridity, as theorized by postcolonial writers such as Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak. Hybridization, specifically in the context of Singaporean society, and reveals itself through evidence of forgotten histories, cultural erasure, forgotten languages, and as a result of globalization. She received her BA (Hons) from Goldsmiths London, at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore in 2014 and her MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 2018. Her works have been shown internationally including George Town Arts Festival in Penang, Malaysia, Art Stage in Singapore, Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria, State Art Gallery in Hyderabad, India, etc.
MAY 11th 12pm – 2pm
The first activation of the book FUTURE/PRESENT published by Duke University Press from ArtChangeUS, edited by Daniella Alvarez, Roberta Uno, Elizabeth M. Webb in lieu of the closing of My Shed Skin Becomes A Mask, a two person show by Jinseok Choi and Vickie Aravindhan.
The program is organized in collaboration with Silvi Naçi, a contributor of the book, and a former fellow at ArtChangeUS. Together we will read “I ka wā ma mua, i ka wā ma hope, `ŌIWI ORIENTATIONS TOWARD A RADICAL FUTURITY”, between Jamica Heolimeleikalani Osoro and Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo’ole Osorio from from the book, and we hope a beautiful conversation is generated among us and the works in the exhibition. Tea and snacks will be served as we sit on blankets outside the Art In The Park building on the grass. The tea bags will be gathered at the end of the event to be a part of Silvi’s ongoing project featured in the book, “building bricks for communal healing”. We will be bringing blankets. Feel free to bring your own as well (or not)!
Our conversation will continue in the exhibition where Jin and Vickie will be activating the space with incense and rattle shaking.
We look forward to sharing this time with you. Please find details below and feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
“Violence is fixed by reestablishing connections, both ancestral and emerging, necessary connections we have to make to each other in our environment that aren’t completely possible unless we drastically transform our orientation. To me, that’s what radical futurity is about.” – Jamica Heolimeleikalani Osoro
Date: Saturday, May 11th, 2024
Time: 12pm – 2pm Address: Art In the Park, Hermon Park (Arroyo Seco Park) 5668 Via Marisol, Los Angeles, CA 90042