Jiayi artist talk 🖥️🐟

I felt Jiayi’s artist talk really spoke to my documenting-loving soul. As soon as I walked in I had goosebumps at hearing the clicking of the data and I was in awe at the sheer size of all the installations Jiayi had brought in.As she talked about her life I felt it was very interesting that her study of Physics was what orbited her back around to art courses like painting and printmaking which then lead to her career now in installation work. (Also, I didn't know about the warmed up bench…it is now noted!)

Another portion of her work as a whole that I was interested in was how she was making something almost invisible (aka data) into something tangible and that takes up quite a bit of space. I loved the tracking project that utilized drying racks. I didn’t note if that was the ultimate choice for the presentation, but I found it interesting because when I walked in I found myself gravitating towards the project. 

Jiayi’s goal for her works also seemed to revolve around archives for the means of accessibility. I don’t remember which work specifically, but I have noted that at some point she said she wanted one of her works to be accessible in a public library for anyone. This is what brings me to her work with the molds of the Nasa moon fragments: documentation and outwardly valuing the art process.

As I looked up close at the different mold stages and the prototypes laying across the ground or in their cases, I fell in love even further when I realized that the odd security cam looking footage on the far back wall was actually her photo gallery documenting her whole project. I wanted to note here that I did ask about the 3-4 digital photos of what was the ice molded into the rock and it reminded me of the artist who created the ice block structures MADE to melt. I say this because she was just experimenting, whereas the prior artist was creating experience. I’m so interested in how Jiayi was able to both give us as an audience a tangible “end” but continuous image of her work, but she also had the process surrounding her work to document the actual process we were given.

I loved her usage of different materials, and I’m not sure if this is the word to use but I felt the word “multi-media” really gathers everything she was hitting both in the motivation of her work and the message she was putting together. I found her interest in detail super exciting coupled with the fact that for every mold she had, she knew the process to get there, and if she didn’t she found answers to her questions.

Unlike other artist talks where the visiting artist is either crowded around or whisked away after the talk, I actually got to have a conversation with Jiayi about her work, but more specifically about her usage of documentation. I will admit here I was a huge fan, but I did say to her that I loved that her archive work was more a route for accessibility than it was isolated preservation. She shared how the documentation work she did in a way related to that of Marcel Duchamps with his box reproductions and how even years in the future he wanted his works to be understood in a certain way. I loved chatting with her and hope to incorporate her thorough methods of documentation into my work.

I also still hear the faint clicking sometimes.....