fractals of identity
april 17. 2018
: an exhibition in three parts exploring the fractal nature of identity
text: a translation journey
ashley j. chong
Chong’s exhibition maps out a translation from English to Korean of a poem about her two names. It is a physical exhibition, in that it requires visitors to walk around and literally follow the translation method. Or is it a translation method? Instead of showing the mechanics of translation, Chong instead shows how her mind splintered words and images within the poem across languages, puns, etymologies, and music. Visitors finish the exhibition less than a foot away from where they started. The final translation is on the opposite side of the wall that held the original English version of the poem, showing that perhaps, although the journey to arrive to the Korean version was winding, it is not so different than the first.
Listen through Chong's 'kpop translation' here:
visual art: 'my ancestor's wildest dreams' & 'gab's world'
gabrielle kershaw
Kershaw explored fractals of identity by creating two pieces. The first, titled 'My Ancestor’s Wildest Dreams', showed how identity is in context. It showed a black boy wearing a simple white shirt set to an emerald background of the faces of his ancestors and family. The background included images of Ghanian royalty, Kershaw’s sister, and other key figures in African American history.
The second piece, titled Gab’s World, is more personal. The focus of the piece is a self-portrait of Kershaw, done in colored pencil. But perhaps focus isn’t the right word, because around the piece, Kershaw used hot foil stamp pressing to attach scraps of her notes from her Chemical Engineering classes as well as sketches. On top of these, she used foils to make the piece literally glow and scatter light. To emphasize this, we shined a light directly onto the piece to bring out the effect of the foils. The result was a piece that was visually engaging, inviting visitors to read the scraps of notes and look at it from different angles. Kershaw additionally brought her sketchbooks for visitors to flip through, to further get a glimpse into her mind. The books were filled with notes for her engineering classes as well as notes from her meetings at NSBE (National Society for Black Engineers), doodles during class, and full-blown drawings in color. By having the notebooks, or perhaps the source materials, next to Gab’s World, visitors got to peel away at the seemingly simple self-portrait into the complex layers that made up Kershaw’s mind.
From Kershaw:
Performing for someone that doesn’t bother to watch...Stepping around the glass ceiling that shattered…I don’t want to be someone’s dumping ground. Don’t give me your leftovers. Don’t make me an afterthought.
No. Don’t cross my boundaries.
I want to be open. I want to grow.
"My Ancestor's Wildest Dreams"
"Gab's World"
Zoske, Kershaw, Chong, and Heeren in front of "Gab's World"
audiovisual: untitled
jacob heeren
Heeren’s work immersed visitors in a world of pure abstraction and familiarity. He interpreted fractals of identity in two extremes: first, by guiding audiences through a fractal set to music composed in a strict mathematical framework, then by showing audiences fractals naturally found in nature (ie in space, in eyes, in grass). Visitors sat in a chair directly in front of the projection and used sound cancelling headphones during the video. Additionally, Heeren placed his exhibition in a corner of the space and used no lighting except for the projection itself. The result was a fully immersive experience that left visitors dazed afterwards, finding themselves in the chair, back to normalcy.
From Heeren:
How can one capture a feeling of inexplicable joy or pain, a fond or haunting memory, an intellectual revelation, the beginning of the cosmos, the present moment? I have and will continue to try to capture the human experience through sound. Through this project, fractals of identity, I explored the notion of a mathematical fractal alongside my compositions. A fractal starts with an equation and when one offers inputs, it results in a complex, self-referential, and beautiful pattern. Visually, fractals start with an image that has a closed perimeter. As you zoom into the fractal, new patterns emerge, and at certain points, you discover the same image that you began with.
This is a beautiful idea to me, and wonderfully analagous to many musical ideas and human experiences. The latter being the first image can represent being fully present with your senses and your physical surroundings. As you zoom into the fractal, memories, ideas, emotions and fluid mental experience overcome you. You become immersed in this journey until you return, eventually, to the original image and your physical surroundings. This cyclical idea of experience is wonderfully compelling to me, and I have tried to capture it through sound.
The compositions I have prepared for this project begin with a pattern, be it rhythmic or harmonic, and then embrace change and eventually return to the original pattern. Each is paired with animations of fractals and visuals of what this mental experience may be like for someone. Alas, I like to think of individual identity as a fluid idea. Just as the world continually changes around us, so does one’s experience and notion of who they are.
watch untitled here
