Memory Fields

Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery

September 20, 2024–November 3, 2024

Curated by Sso-Rha Kang, Curator at The Carnegie

Memory Fields explores the nuances of memory and its uncanny ability to transport culture, traditions, rituals, and feelings through space and time. Oscillating between place and placelessness, seven artists of diverse cultural backgrounds present a series of actions, systems, and moments that are influenced by regional, national, and transnational experiences.

Memories contain stories that are potent, bodily, and felt. They have the potential to conjure joy, grief, and nostalgia, with its residue carrying through time. Memory is malleable, from a recollection of events to something more ambiguous, such as the sensation of familiarity or longing. It is selective, often reimagined, and flawed. Memories are private, yet their preservation is contingent on being shared, creating an intimate exchange of moments lost in time and resulting in a transition from private to collective experiences. The intimacy of this form of storytelling can highlight the intricacies of how artists navigate histories that are grounded in personal, familial, and cultural narratives.

Artists: Jesse Ly, Emily Hanako Momohara, Yoshi Nakamura, Migiwa Orimo, Kanthy Peng, Nayeon Yang, Xia Zhang

Group Show Contemporary

Related Events

September 28, 2024
12:00pm – 5:00pm

The FotoFocus Symposium is designed to bring together Participants to discuss the backstories theme and its relationship to lens-based art and the world today. These conversations foster timely and in-depth dialogue around art in the current social and political climate.

12pm Light Bites

1pm Memory Fields Conversation
Sso-Rha Kang, Curator of Memory Fields, Curator at The Carnegie, Cincinnati, OH and Artist Jesse Ly, Dayton, OH

1:30pm Chip Thomas and the Painted Desert Project Panel
Moderated by Kevin Moore, FotoFocus Artistic Director and Curator, New York, NY; with panelists Chip Thomas, Artist, Flagstaff, AZ; Ken Ogawa, Maker/Artist, Columbia, MO; and Sunny Dooley, Diné Hozhojii Teller, Creator, and Poet, Diné Nation, NM

2:30pm Southern Democratic Spotlight with Filmmaker Michael Almereyda, New York, NY

3pm Ming Smith Conversation
Ming Smith, Artist, Harlem, NY and Daisy Desrosiers, David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation Director and Chief Curator at The Gund, Kenyon College, Mount Vernon, OH

4pm backstories Keynote Lecture
Kathy Ryan, former Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine, New York, NY

Additional Information: FotoFocus strives to create a welcoming, supportive, diverse, and inclusive environment in our workplace, in our programming, and in our partnerships with artists, curators, collaborators, and the public. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be available at the Biennial Symposium, sponsored by Ohio Humanities. For questions regarding accessibility accommodations during FotoFocus events, please email info@fotofocus.org.

Access to the entire FotoFocus Biennial Program is only one benefit of being a FotoFocus 2022 Biennial Passport holder. GET THE PASSPORT for free entry and exclusive events!

Kanthy Peng, Artificial Tear, 2019. Archival inkjet print, 30 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist
Kanthy Peng, Ajar, 2024. Video projection on acrylic board, 15 min, 38 x 47 inches. Courtesy of the artist
Jesse Ly, what does the willow bring?, 2021. Archival inkjet print with hand-cut embedded mat, 30 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist
Emily Hanako Momohara, Bamboo Wall, 2024. Archival wallpaper, 72 x 108 inches. Courtesy of the artist
Nayeon Yang, A Night Visible to the Naked Eye, 2019–2022. Multimedia video installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist
Xia Zhang, Safe In Unsafe, 2016. Archival pigment print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist