Pots & Pickles: Ying Ye at the Intersection of Food, Identity, and Culture
There is no doubt that collaboration and creativity are intertwined.
For her most recent group show Relics | Remnants at the Farmington Valley Arts Center (FVAC) with fellow Artist-in-Residence Trae Brooks, multidisciplinary artist Ying Ye not only found inspiration in Brooks’ work (and vice versa), but she relied on the help of her family, friends, and professors.
Mediums, Light filter, Media Player, Terracotta, and Electoral Cores.
Ye commented about how it's rare to see a six-month program like their Artist-in-Residence program. The mere space/facility sharing the artists experience gives them the additional advantage of skill-sharing and mentorship across disciplines and career-levels. As an alumna of Hartford Art School with degrees in both Painting and Sculpture, she has found a considerable amount of peace in another discipline: Ceramics.
Rice flour, Isomalt, Wood power, and Porcelain.
The availability of facilities at FVAC allowed Ye to use her imagination and truly create multidisciplinary yet installations. She incorporated her art school foundation with new Ceramic work in her installations, Eating Pickles Together in the Reproduction of the Home and Speak from the Ground as part of Relics | Remnants. By mixing clay with modeling paste to create a canvas “lip,” Ye mimicked the crack in a clay pot. She also included micro-installations in the gallery windows using tiny pots she made in the FVAC ceramic studio.
Ye's statement about the Chinese government-mandated demolition relocation is illustrated in Speak from the Ground. The vessel, housing a small screen video of Ye forming bubbles under water (mimicking the fermentation process) is meant to preserve tradition, culture, and identity within the walls that are cracking and falling down around it.
Apart from the political, Ye's work is also very much about language,communication, and embodiment. Ye is inspired by her own experience as aChinese immigrant, working in her family's restaurant. For this reason, she isvery attuned to taste and smell, which is why her other installation in thisshow centered around the act of sharing a meal.
While her father provided a few dishes, it was mostly Ye who prepareddifferent fermented dishes for reception guests to enjoy as part of theinstallation. The relationship between food and identity is prevalentthroughout Ye's life, and it was brought to the forefront in this show.
Ye has actively continued to pursue this relationship in her work, picking up catering shifts for inspiration and serving as a Sculpture technician at her alma mater. Ye has plans to apply for other residencies, internships, and eventually grad school.
(photography: Chris Herrera)
- Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC
Fermentation Pot Collaboration with Erika Novak and Drew Darley, Table, Mats, Broad-
leaved Epiphyllum, Dry Flowers, Lamp, Curtain, Painting Based on the Ye Family
Photograph, Pickles, Bowls from Ye’s home, Chopsticks, Tea Sets, Serving Wares.