Don't They Ever Stop Migrating? by Jinny Yu is currently on display at The Rooms in St. John's, Newfoundland. This three-dimensional painting explores both abstraction and the experience of migration, and was first presented at the 56th Venice Biennale.
The gallery walls are enveloped on all sides by fabric peppered with black, feather like marks. The brushstrokes vary in size, creating a sense of space and depth that resembles birds flying in the sky. Voices swirl into the gallery space and listeners hear phrases such as, "what are you," and, "where did you come from," from Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds, repeated over and over.
"The abstracted marks and collaged sounds in Don’t They Ever Stop Migrating? act as a vocabulary to describe the common response of animosity and suspicion towards migrants, pointing to the social and political response at the crux of this abstract painting" - Ola Wlusek, Curator of Contemporary Art, Ottawa Art Gallery
The combination of sound and the countless feather-like marks in Jinny Yu's work cause us to feel an amazing mixture of confusion and disorientation in the gallery space. The floating feathers in Don't They Ever Stop Migrating? are a wonderful representation of the experience of transition from one space to another and society's outlook on migration.
Don’t They Ever Stop Migrating? is on display at The Rooms until September 18th, 2016.
