A???PART: Episode 2

A???PART, a bi-weekly online exhibition of new time-based work/media, will act as an opportunity to create and share new work in light of resource and creative constraints. We now present Episode One, featuring the work of Jakob Wirth, Minjung Michelle Kim, Siyan Li, Kristina Tokar, Jiayun Lu, and Laura Nicole Haldane.

Submissions can serve as a response to the current state of social distancing/living in social isolation or can more broadly demonstrate how you may be adjusting or experimenting with your artistic practice at this time to cope with the current crisis. Of course, with limited access to SAIC’s campus, many students do not have the equipment or materials they are used to having during the semester. While we definitely understand the frustrating aspect of this limitation, we also see potential in the current limitations of access. We are hoping that the makers in our community can feel motivated, inspired, and challenged to channel their resourcefulness to be able to make work or just simply, vent.

Submissions can be anything from video diaries/confessionals, screen performances, phone camera or webcam films, internet appropriation, etc. We encourage you to work with any resources you may have at home and in a pinch.

Click HERE to submit something for our A???PART programs!

HOW TO BE A MAN
Jakob Wirth / 7:08

As a cis-man-read white person, I seek to deconstruct and dissolve my privileges and to fight against patriarchy. I launched the YouTube Channel TRUE MASCULINITIES to address cis-men within their own territory. This series of video interviews tackles “How to be a Real Man?” subverting this question in order to confront the toxic atmosphere around queer masculinity.

#StrongerTogether
Minjung Michelle Kim / 1:00

My name is Minjung Michelle Kim and I’m an alumni (BFA 2013, MDES 2016) and a faculty at the Fashion Department. I design and hand craft jewelries by reinventing traditional techniques of making jewelries and combing different craftsmanship in beading, sewing, knitting, and embroidering.
And, this work is from my most recent “Love is” collection, which is my self portrait involving my loved ones, who have been shaping my life through difficult times and happiness. I hope to deliver this message of what “love is” to me through my art work in this difficult time of global crisis.

🖼️
Siyan Li / 4:43

This is an exploration of the nostalgia through simulation. A projection of a mode of being that is beyond the present: possibly after death? Definitely a quiet one.

Fantasy Ends.
Kristina Tokar / 2:09

@Queen_daddy_666 imitates the Sheep Green painting. You become what you repeat.
Fantasy Ends.
Butterfly is a stop motion, moving image. The transformation of form represents rebirth. Heartbroken but full of love, @Queen_daddy_666 turns inward.
Vitamin D was made in response to feeling super happy for no reason (well the reason was I was really into this girl) which will connect me to my I love me(you) series. It’s almost unnatural to feel unhappy in a sunny place since you contrast your environment as opposed to feeling sad in a bleak winter environment where everything feels dead. It’s interesting to think how Vitamin D could prevent SAD (seasonal affective disorder) from happening but how can the sun be in a pill form?  Who am I to judge if the artificial consumption of sunshine creates a real reaction, a real feeling, a real experience for its consumer, who happens to be this character.  I’m always interested in thinking about ideas of excess, finding a temporary solution to an emotional problem and going overboard. In this scenario, it’s obviously the pills that are making this character feel this way and by ignoring the obvious which is the rope around her neck – the fantasy is exposed.

Isolation Diary
Jiayun Li / 6:59

Screens-TVs, videos, networks, and mobile phones are the most important “windows” of our cognitive world in modern society. In fact, they are the products of ideology and ideological concepts matured by social conventions. They will influence our analysis, judgment, and even observe the way and content of the problem.
As an architecture background student, I often observe, enter, and experience architecture and urban space with human scales and perspectives. During self-isolation, I tried not to use the conventional occupant’s perspective to observe the limited surrounding environment, but to use mobile phones and glass to observe the perspective that I had not noticed before. From a surveillance point of view, to discover the changes in urban space under the COVID-19.

#COVID19 | @LauraNicoleHaldane
Laura Haldane / 48:00

Documenting my personal journey during 2020 pandemic. All filmed using old iPhone.
Sometimes I feel like we get so overwhelmed with how things might appear to be that we neglect to be as transparent as we can. No, I am no connoisseur, but what I am is another human being just as you are. Living, creating and attempting to thrive no matter the odds stacked against me. Now I know this resonates with some more so than others, as it is the resulting way of life within interlocking systems of oppression. Some of us have been striving to thrive since before 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Which is ironic that we all end up here. A forced slowed pace. A stand still with lots of movement in betwixt our darkest crevices.
I’ve just been like dang y’all, it took us this long to meditate on our ways 🤦🏾‍♀️!!! No complaints though, only praises to the earth who always prevails. A little about my intentions during this current pandemic. As you all know historically artist and healers are almost always inextricably teamed, introducing creative ways to disseminate resources. So what am opportune time for us to amplify this affinity while everyone pauses. Now, I won’t say that I’m experienced with everything, but what I do overstand are my strengths in bridge building and organizing. In which case, my desire to share has everything to do with the ways I function on a daily basis. Mixing this with a center on creative healing practices and general resources, is where I’d like to use my energy. I mean I could be wrong, and that’s okay, but let this be the quarantine we share together in virtual community space. One collaborative session at a time.
Last thoughts, I overstand the need to be in solidarity with our vulnerable communities, disabled, mentally ill, and immunosuppressed/immunocompromised communities etc, who almost all have historically been disproportionately impacted by environmental racism. Let these shared moments be a reminder to protect one another because it is our duty to fight for freedom! It is our duty to win! We must love each other and support each other! We have nothing to lose but our chains!!
-L
They / Them