Serendipity is commonly related to one thing constructive, one thing of a cheerful accident. and if in case you have by no means heard or used the phrase zemblanity you could be forsaken. Wendy Park’s latest solo present at Various Small Fires, Of Our Personal, comes at a time when it’s most wanted, I believe, a painter whose work converse to the mundane and quietly profound components of a metropolis that do not usually get documented. In Los Angeles, although, that is the DNA, the material of the place and area, markets, strip malls, scatteredness and expanse. The a part of LA that’s so laborious to explain in phrases is the act of driving for miles and miles, previous new mini cities, new languages on the indicators, new parking tons and buying malls, and in every single place you look there’s kinship, household, exercise, motion. The town stretches on and on with tradition and a mixing of numerous backgrounds, sq. mile after sq. mile of life.
That is why it usually feels foolish to pigeonhole and place, to name a metropolis one factor when it is precise DNA is one thing most Individuals can relate to both right this moment or of their ancestory: it’s the immigrant story, making a house away from dwelling as a brand new dwelling. Park positions her work usually within the Korean-American expertise, however because the gallery notes, “This physique of labor was produced throughout a interval of heightened ICE exercise in Southern California, a backdrop that sharpened Park’s meditations on visibility, vulnerability, and the misrepresentation of immigrant communities in American public discourse. Her work serve counter-narratives: tributes to the immigrant labor, love, and casual economies which have formed the American panorama.” Park is eloquent in her use of particulars, to zoom into an concept and make it bigger than life. We’d like this care proper now. —Evan Pricco
