Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork: the input of this machine is the power an output contains
Made in L.A. 2020: a version, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Apr 17– Aug 1, 2021
Production | Exhibition Grant
Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork’s sound installation for Made in L.A. 2020: a version offers a porous space through which visitors and performers alike can discover their bodies as instruments in a vast soundscape. This environment—wired with speakers and stereo systems to generate carefully calibrated sound effects—will be further activated by performers, who will collaborate with feedback loops, audience members, and each other to create a powerfully immersive sound experience that explores deep listening. A series of interconnected rooms comprised of plastic and felt curtains designed to modulate sound shape the frequencies of prerecorded electronic noise with the voices of live performers. These actors, dancers, and musicians move throughout the rooms of the installation, reciting a dialogue that oscillates between conversation and monologue. Performances occur throughout the exhibition’s two-month run, enabling visitors to explore a unique sensorial environment as they traverse the installation. This project serves as a significant milestone for Kiyomi Gork, building off her ongoing exploration of sonic affect and its intersections with aesthetics and architecture. As her first durational project in a museum setting that engages live performers, Kiyomi Gork’s project at the Hammer will naturally change over time, allowing the artist to maintain an intimate engagement with the work throughout the course of Made in L.A. 2020.
Organized by the Hammer Museum at UCLA, Made in L.A. is a biennial that showcases emerging and under-appreciated artists who orbit the southern Californian metropolis. The 2020 biennial is organized by independent curators Myriam Ben Salah and Lauren Mackler, with the Hammer’s Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, assistant curator of performance. Drawing on their extensive experience programming performance art and public offerings, they are shaping a biennial that thinks deeply about where performance is seen, how it is accessed, and how it fits in the exhibition context. Made in L.A. 2020 is organized by the Hammer Museum in partnership with The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
For more information, please visit the Hammer Museum.
Images: Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, the input of this machine is the power an output contains, 2020. Installation view, Hammer Museum. Wool, fiberglass, synthetic hair, vinyl, steel, cotton felt, ink, Velcro, audio speakers, computer, software, microphone, carpet. Installed dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong. Installation view, Made in L.A. 2020: a version, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White / JWPictures.com.
