an art installation by Korean–American artist Sook Jin Jo
at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard Street, NYC
Artist Sook Jin Jo addresses the question of death and mourning. The installation marks individual losses and also serves as a gesture of resurrection. Created in collaboration with the ESOL students from the Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement House.
Photo essay of opening night and the exhibit
...interpreted by photographer Gene Hirschel...
...hands, faces, shadows and smiles intimate the feelings and the energy of the night
Gene Hirschel reinterprets both Sook Jin Jo's work and the opening event in the context of the Tenement's history. Faces of many ages, close together, with open eyes, minds and hearts receive the artwork along with the stories and history of the building. Hands give and receive, eyes search the room. The images have that feeling of timelessness, shadow and light, pause and motion, moments captured. This work is a testament to the many people who passed through the building, living and working there.
Outside, in the cold, Gene captured the energy of the artwork against the streets of the city itself, in the darkness. Ironwork becomes a face bowing in respect, drops of paint, dried long ago, seem to echo tears of long forgotten people, memories, and the heart of a people who created one of the greatest cities on earth. The stark shadows, tightly packed together, call us to that energy of our collective past in the steps leading to these hallowed buildings.
is a space for contemporary artists to display site-specific installations about issues of concern to recent immigrants. Artists work with ESOL classes to create installations that illuminate parallels students see between their own experiences and lives of 97 Orchard Streets' residents.
is known primarily for her work with wood. Over the past 20 years she has produced drawings, collages, sculptural assemblages, performances and site-specific installations.
She unites form, meaning, and effect by a single spiritual purpose: reclamation – a secure conviction of the latent visual seductiveness of humble materials (excerpted from her website).