Jesse Chun

Installation (Installation)

O (for various skies) by Jesse Chun is a two-channel video sculpture that decentralizes American colonial narratives about the moon through “unlanguaging”—a methodology that the artist has conceptualized for unfixing language. The project disrupts bureaucratic documents pertaining to the United States government’s lunar colonization and militarization, such as The Lunex Project of 1958 and Project Horizon of 1959, through methods of visual, semiotic, and sonic (mis)translation and abstraction. Chun redacts the found texts, transforming them into concrete poetry, while interweaving lesser known Korean folklore about the moon, such as the precolonial Korean women’s moon dance ( ganggangsullae ) and shamanistic ritual dance for ushering the departed into another world ( gildakeum ).

Jesse Krimes

Sculpture (Sculpture)

Raybrook by Jesse Krimes takes its name from The Federal Correctional Institution, Ray Brook (FCI Ray Brook), a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates located in Essex County, NY. In addition to its indexical title, this quilt-work tapestry is made from personal clothing and other like articles the artist was given by currently, and formerly incarcerated persons. It is part of a larger series of works called the Elegy Quilts , which illustrate domestic scenes inspired by conversations the artist has had with the individuals these fabrics were acquired from.