A Universe is a giant bottle gourd made of earth (cob and kaolin clay over a steel frame). You can enter at either of the two ends; inside, there are large feet, hands, and heads lining the walls, resembling a body turned outside in. When it rains, water streams into channels carved on its outside walls and down to the 16 windows (8 on each side), where there are cups that fill up, tip, spill, hit notes, and make music. 30’ x 16’ x 11’ Beam Camp, Strafford, N.H. Documentation of the process, research, and prototyping: beamcamp.cargo.site. Summer 2021. Photo documentation here
CONSTELLATION is a suite of interactive sound sculptures designed by Ye Zhu and built by NYC youth at Beam Camp City. Inspired by the concept of asteroseismology—which shows that stars sound like ringing bells—the piece’s six sculptures are placed at scenic locations around Governors Island, creating a constellation of ringing bells.
Each of the 6 STARS that make up CONSTELLATION has a base (which takes the shape of giant human sense organs); stem (that is as tall as a small tree); and web (of lines that bloom from each stem). Suspended on the webs are painted slip-casted bells that wind, and visitors, ring!
Governor's Island, New York. Summer 2021.
Diary Disks are community art installations across New Haven. The Disks are boundless in shape and resemble time portals, acting as pandemic archives of collective memory, stamped with the location and date like a diary entry. In partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs (City of New Haven) and International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Diary Disks will be co-created with community partners throughout 11 different neighborhoods. Residents write and draw their responses to a unique prompt on the Disk. The goal is to make visible our collective struggles, losses and triumphs, gauge how the city is feeling, and acknowledge that the pandemic is ongoing.
Project website: www.havenartspark.com
Mediated Meditation - A commissioned 16:9 billboard for Kingsgate Project Space in 110 Kingsgate Road, London, UK. Inspired by my relief-painting "Mediated Meditation," which depicts media bombardment, obfuscation, and material accumulation, the billboard borrows and heightens these themes by flattening the image and enlarging it to cover the side of the project space building. 2021.
Inspired by virtual reality, anonymity, and the desire to connect, I=N=T=E=R=F=A=C=E is a multimedia performance staged in a dinner cabaret as a gathering space for ritual and spectacle. As an immersive experience, moments of intimacy is our gamble. Yale Cabaret, New Haven, CT ~ 2019
Maya & the Mycelial Network ~ 2018 ~ At The Range, Saguache, C.O.
* * * * * *
beneath the dirt
is a cavernous empty mind
pushing
to colonize free gaps
“There is only one reason why the world was faked”
the child said
her mycelium stretched and meshed
focusing her fruits
into stories
Teaching Garden - in collaboration with teachers, staff, and students of each grade level at Andreas Hudde (I.S.240) in Brooklyn, we designed and facilitated the making of an outdoors classroom–garden. The students were asked to reflect on their personal growth and learning, using gardening as a metaphor for cultivating the world they want to live in. Their reflections in quotes, writings, drawings, paintings, sculptures, and adaptations dress the structures, turning the garden into a sculptural-classroom-garden. Fall 2017 - Spring 2018.
A Maze - Beam Center kids and I made a maze. We shredded, blended, threw paper pulp and all sorts of materials into a vacuum bag. The vacuum formed paper became the walls of a maze. The kids played tag and hide-and-seek in it. Summer 2017. For complete documentation, go here.
YE MANDALA - Works made in Summer 2016 by Ye Zhu in collaboration with Sofia Huang (his 8 year old cousin). Texts by Ye Zhu. For complete documentation, go here.
The Eternity of Dragonflies - An installation in the exhibition "Office Space", curated by Esteban Cabeza de Baca at 28 Liberty Street, NY. Materials: one way mirror films, hot glue, fluorescent light bulbs, and extension cords. 2016.