Mending Body/Mending Mind
Holly Wong

GALLERY III

November 16 – December 15, 2024

Opening reception: Saturday, November 16, from 6–8pm

A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce Mending Body/Mending Mind, an exhibition by National Artist Holly Wong, featuring an immersive fiber installation which incorporates a poem and sound composition by Aya Karpińska and two-channel video by Al Wong. This is Wong’s first exhibition of her installation work in New York City.

Mending Body/Mending Mind mines the unspoken secrets that exist between mothers and daughters. Images and audio situated in an immersive landscape of fabric reveal hidden sexual trauma: a two-channel video of sewing and personal grooming activities is projected onto the fabric, serving as a proxy for a sublimated kind of violence, while a poem and sound composition echoes through the space, detailing an abstracted tale of rape. The poem incorporates the words of Wong’s deceased mother telling her own harrowing story of sexual violence, and is spoken in an intimate dialogue between Karpińska and Wong herself.

The layering of these visual and sonic elements onto suspended textiles creates a sense of enclosure—the details of the mother’s story reveal themselves only in fragments, reflecting her response to the initial traumatic experience. But the textiles do more than just obfuscate. By completely enveloping her mother’s story in fabric, Wong metaphorically absorbs and releases her suffering, healing her of trauma. Using the language of traditional quilt making, the artist creates an environment of transparent shapes from silk, cotton, and antique lace that have been sewn together, cut, and then reassembled again into an improvised patchwork that emphasizes repair.  Predominantly white or monochromatic fabric nods to the Buddhist mourning customs surrounding the transition to a new life and rebirth. The installation not only bears witness to the ways in which trauma disfigures the female body, it also imagines the process of mending as an expression of love between mother and daughter, creating a stronger whole.

Holly Wong was born in North Miami Beach, FL. She was educated at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she graduated with a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in New Genres. Wong has participated in over one-hundred exhibitions, including group shows at the de Young Museum, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Art. She has been a featured artist in Art Spiel, Maake Magazine, and New Visionary Magazine. Wong lives and works in San Francisco. https://hollywongart.com

View the Press Release here.

View Holly Wong’s page here.

Sound Composition for Mending Body/Mending Mind:

Photography: Matthew Sherman