It is well known that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it’s rarely expected for artworks to be quite literally founded in written language. Up until early May, the Great Park Gallery will be hosting a Contemporary Book Art exhibit that is truly worth the visit. Drawing viewers into a flurry of crisscrossing cultures, this local exhibit provides a unique perspective on language by mixing literature into contemporary art through 3-D works, videos and more.
Curated by Xinyue Lulu Yuan in collaboration with UCI’s special collection, the exhibit displays the works of ten artists from East Asia and the United States and revolves around natural language processing, which encourages viewers to engage in the languages found within nature.
“When we think of linguistics, we refer to it as human languages,” Yuan said. “We see in the exhibit that the artists engage in what they see in nature, such as the sounds of the bird or the colors of the clouds. They are blurring this boundary that interacts between the human understanding of languages and the languages in nature.”
Small in size and simplistically curated, the exhibit blankets viewers with an atmosphere of tranquility through its quiet setting. The simple collection of artworks creates a flowing narrative through various mediums, from photography to handmade books, displaying how the artists took a contemporary twist on the concept of literature.
A prime example is a piece titled “Fireflies.” The artist, Barbara Bosworth, meshed her numerous pictures of fireflies and blended her passion for photography with a handscroll format that featured East Asian elements. “Grass,” made by Xianlu Yi, utilizes a Korean poem to create a sculpture out of paper strips that resembles a pop-up book, with artwork that represents the grassroots movement during the democratization of Korea.
This collection of artwork makes the exhibition a uniquely wholesome experience. The gallery was a relieving change from other intimidatingly large exhibitions, where it can take days to observe every piece. There is always something to take away from an exhibit, particularly one so intimate, personal and carefully curated.
The Natural Language: Contemporary Book Art Exhibit will be open until May 4. The exhibit, located at the Palm Court adjacent to Parking Lot 3, is open from Thursday to Saturday with free admission.
