We Introduce Ourselves To Planets and To Flowers: ASMA, Kat Lyons, Iris Yirei Hu, Slow Immediate

We introduce ourselves
To Planets and to Flowers
But with ourselves
Have etiquettes
Embarrassments
And awes
—Emily Dickinson

Make Room is delighted to present We Introduce Ourselves To Planets and to Flowers, a four-person exhibition of Iris Yirei Hu, ASMA, Kat Lyons, and Slow Immediate.

The year of 2020 has revealed itself as a time of unprecedented emergency while human activity has fundamentally changed as a result of the ongoing pandemic. What role does the artist and their environment play and how has the process by which making art radically shifted? How have the new modalities of communication affected the way art has a discussion with society? We Introduce Ourselves To Planets and to Flowers is an exhibition that is born out of an urgency to reexamine these roles and exchanges. The title, a direct line from Emily Dickinson’s, Poem #1214, is a commentary on how social exchanges are governed by a set of expectations and barriers. The function of the artist and art as a mode of communication is related to this idea and made more prevalent as the world continues to come to terms with widespread isolation. In this time of reflection, Make Room invites four artists across different living landscapes to share their thoughts, through the narratives and processes of their practices.

Iris Yirei Hu’s work dwells in the memory of the personal, ancestry, and the connections made with both the universe and human life. It is rooted in the very foundation of the world and of nature. Into the Mystique is a portrait of herself in a mystical land where she and the environment grows into an entangled unity. She tells stories not only through the use of organic materials embedded with rich history, but also through the collaborations with other artists. In the exhibition, Nesting is a piece consisting of functional handmade walnut boxes Hu co-created with her partner David Bell, which open to a painting of hers using gold leaf, acrylic and embroidery. Another work, Eye Drop is a monotype print collaborated with New Mexico based artist Paula Wilson. The print consists of a hand reaching with the eye inviting viewers to further navigate the artist's subconscious.

The artist duo ASMA’s practice investigates the intimate space of which transforms an insignificant object into a personal treasure by creating a connection that alters epistemologically. Utilizing language games, material illusion and fictions as major elements, ASMA attempts to re-establish a valorization of experience over logical understanding and academic practices that are based on a rigid language. They are drawn by the sensual and spiritual aspects of the surrounding world, and hence their practice is to foster deeper connection from within. The duo believes that giving value to simple things would help build a culture of connectivity and sensitization towards modern life, which transforms into a culture of empathy and consequently of love.

Kat Lyons’s new paintings depart from a place of reciprocity. Through these works, she invites us to explore the engagement of non-human beings. Mirror Room is a painting that captures the movement of grandian geese. Their bond is a constant dance, agreed upon under the strange circumstances of their care-taking duties. The artist watched them for months from her studio window, always in unison, a choreographed reflection of the other. The inseparability of their lengthy white forms fused, they grew in strength. Lyons explains, “I think about duality often, most likely the result of growing up a twin, and much like the geese, my identity felt tied to that of another- I moved accordingly”. Mirror Room is an homage to these relationships.

The exhibition also presents a live sound streaming of Slow Immediate’s latest project, Living Sounds. Slow Immediate is an art and electrical/mechanical engineering duo whose creative practice devises surprising, intimate sensory encounters that invite audiences to perceive themselves as connected sums of all parts, and, in turn, to appreciate what we are and what we share. Living Sounds is a project that evolves in the time of self-isolation, when those of us in cities find ourselves cut off from nature. When entering the gallery space, the audience will hear the real live restoration symphony from the woods and swamps of a recovering wetland in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The exhibition is hosted by Kylin Gallery at Beverly Hills. It opens on Saturday, October 3, 2020 at 12 PM, and will be on view through November 14, 2020 by appointment.

Click HERE to make an appointment to visit.