Mycosymbiosis
an installation by Xiaojing Yan Oct 2 5:00 pm Glendon Hall Manor
On Oct. 2, at 5:00 PM artist Xiaojing Yan will launch Mycosymbiosis, a time-based and site-specific installation at Glendon. The installation will be located on the balcony adjacent to Historic Glendon Manor’s ballroom. On Monday, we will meet in front of the Manor (a.k.a. Glendon Hall) at 5 pm and we will be visiting the installation. A reception in the Ballroom will follow.
The installation consists of a mobile gallery containing a variety of mushrooms which grow, decay and renew, weaving their intricate forms through its interstitial space and the responding to the surrounding natural environment. The installation will be on view throughout the Fall.
In this installation, Yan weaves together ideas of identity as both complicated and complex, and a perspective on nature as transcending the boundaries of self and other, inside and outside, familiar and foreign. Yan inoculated the space adjacent to the external walls of the mobile gallery with three cultures of Oyster Mushrooms. A timelapse of their growth will be projected inside the gallery. The resulting living sculpture will continue to transform in the next weeks as temperatures and humidity fluctuate, welcoming a variety of symbiotic organisms that support, compete with, and feed off the mushrooms. Documentation and care of this installation will be conducted by the students of COMS4208, Emergent Practices in Communication which was the recipient of a AIF grant category II. This event will kick off a series of public engagements on networks, care, and land based community building, and artistic practice.
This installation represents the second phase of a long-term collaboration between Xiaojing Yan and the team behind Emergent – a Living Mobile Gallery: Roberta Buiani (Glendon/UofT), Lorella di Cintio (TMU) and Kavi (Ilze Briede, YorkU), with scientific advising from James Scott (UofT). More information about the installation can be found here: https://artscisalon.com/emergent-gallery/mycosymbiosis/
| Xiaojing Yan is a Chinese-Canadian artist whose work embraces her sense of having a hybrid identity. Settling permanently in the Toronto area, her work reflects her journey through these various cultures, arriving at her own personal vocabulary. Her unique point of view unites the past and the present, encompassing culture and nature, art and science.Her work has appeared in solo exhibitions at institutions including the Chinese American Arts Council in NYC, Richmond Art Gallery in Canada, Suzhou Museum in China, Hermès Maison in Shanghai, and Varley Art Gallery in Canada. Her projects have been featured in venues throughout Canada as well as China, France, USA and Greece. Yan is a recipient of numerous awards and grants including In Style’s Women in Creation Prize in Visual Arts (2021), Project Grants from the Ontario Arts Council (2022, 2020), Project Grants from the Canada Council (2022, 2021), the Annual Conference Support Grant from College of Art Association (2021), Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council (2016), Young Alumni Achievement Award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2014). https://yanxiaojing.com/ |
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