Woven Currents – Confluence of Parallels
2020

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

735 x 1194 x 402 cm

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Purchased with funds from Eleanor and Francis Shen, the David Yuile and Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Women’s Art Initiative, the Janet and Michael Scott Fund, the Contemporary Circle Fund, the Richard Ivey Foundation Contemporary Art Fund, Sandra and Leo Del Zotto, the Jay Smith and Laura Rapp Fund, and the Molly Gilmour Fund, 2020

Installation view of Emergence, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, 2020
Photo: Craig Boyko, AGO Image © 2020

 

Excerpt from the exhibition guide of Emergence, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, 2020

 

In connection with Emergence, the AGO commissioned Yang to create a new work for the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Sculpture Atrium. She was inspired to create Woven Currents – Confluence of Parallels after responding powerfully to the AGO’s collections of Indigenous and Canadian art. As she learned about the contexts surrounding this work, she was particularly fascinated by the Two Row Wampum Treaty of 1613, which documented an agreement to sustain harmony between the Five Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) and the Dutch government. She was also intrigued by the layered architecture of the Sculpture Atrium, where the history of the institution is visible.

When Yang encountered the Two Row Wampum Treaty, she was struck by how a visual representation could be more powerful than a written document, and how this streamlined expression could clearly convey the values, hopes, and beliefs of those who created it. In Woven Currents – Confluence of Parallels, Yang connects the parallel lines of the wampum belt, which represent each group’s history and destiny, to the linear structure of venetian blinds. She entangles these lines, as though they are constantly interacting with each other, creating a composition that can appear both transparent and opaque, depending on your vantage point. Zigzags, crossings, and overlapping sequences of blue, purple, and white evoke the contentious history of the relationship between settlers and Indigenous people.

 

Exhibition history

Emergence, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, 2020

 

 

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