Free and open to the public.
Please join us for a reception with Mayumi Lake to celebrate the opening of her solo exhibition Unison.
As a part of the Elevate series at 21c Chicago, the work will be on view from February through April in Gallery 3.
Unison is Mayumi Lake’s ongoing series of immersive mixed-media installations, sculptures, and photographic collages. The central motif of this series is Housouge, an ancient Japanese imaginary flower believed to bloom in paradise, symbolizing the delicate border between life and death. These intricate floral patterns have been passed down through Asian history and are prominently featured in sacred spaces, embodying hope within the cyclical nature of life.
During periods of social unrest - such as natural disasters, epidemics, and political upheaval - Housouge patterns historically became more large, vivid and saturated, reflecting resilience and a collective yearning for harmony. In today’s world, where the present often feels intertwined with echoes of the past, Lake’s Housouge-inspired” Unison” seeks to illuminate moments of optimism and hope amidst the turbulence of contemporary society.
Mayumi Lake (b. Osaka, Japan) is a Chicago-based artist.
Driven by my childhood fantasy, phobia, and desire, my artwork interacts with the ideas of time, memory, and floating between the real and imaginary. I use photography to weave my autobiographical narrative—from the mimicry of prepubescent flesh surrounded by soft pastel clothing, emotionally charged landscapes with a solitary girl soldier standing, and darkly illuminated and saturated stereotyped females to bright and sparkly photo-sculptural mythical flowers. I also incorporate sculpture, sound, moving images, and installation to expand my narrative into more complex layers.
As a Japanese immigrant, my work is continually floating/shifting between states: East and West, longing and hope, memories and oblivion, and past and future. I am interested in archiving things that could be forgotten or become obsolete over time – otherwise, I will forget where I came from. The awareness of the impermanence of things, or "Mono-No-Aware" in Japanese, has turned into an obsession and obligation to preserve the past as knowledge for the future. The idea of photography works very well in freezing and packaging floating moments to archive them.
Although my obsession is rooted in a very personal narrative, I believe that the most personal is the most universal. In this way, I evoke emotional reactions from my viewers.
Elevate at 21c presents temporary exhibitions of works by artists living and working in the communities surrounding each 21c Museum Hotel. Elevate provides hotel guests and visitors with unique access to the work of notable regional artists, while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s contemporary art space.
