This presentation marks the first solo museum exhibition of Los Angeles–based artist Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork (b. 1982, Long Beach, CA), whose practice engages sound as both conceptual and literal material. Building on her ongoing explorations into sound as an architectural form, Kiyomi Gork has transformed the Project Room into a maze, revealing the integral—yet invisible—role that sound plays in shaping one’s perception.
Titled Into/Loving/Against/Lost in the Loop (2023), the installation features an electronic beat generated from live audio pulled from the surrounding galleries. Inside, the rhythmic pulse of the beat is amplified and distorted through spatial and material interventions, such as speakers and sound blankets, reflecting the artist’s sculptural use of objects commonly associated with noise control. The circuitous structure of the maze underscores the feedback loop inherent to hearing, wherein, according to Kiyomi Gork, “What you hear affects how you move and how you move affects how you hear.” As its title suggests, Into/Loving/Against/Lost in the Loop describes the multifaceted nature of the feedback loop, speaking to simultaneous sensations of agency and loss of control, collectivity and isolation. Here, soundwaves vibrate through the body and orient the visitor as they navigate the maze’s twists and turns—at once transported away from, and brought back to, their own embodied experience. In calling attention to the somatic quality of sound, Kiyomi Gork blurs the distinctions between audience, performer, audio, and architecture to create a heightened awareness of the dynamics of perception.
Installation view, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, February 11–May 14, 2023. Photo: Jeff McLane/ICA LA.
Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork (b. 1982, Long Beach, CA) has been working with the intersection of sound, sculpture, and performance since 2002. She studied sound art, photography, and new genres at the San Francisco Art Institute and researched the history of communication technologies, acoustics, and computer music at Stanford University. Her work has been included in several group exhibitions, including Made in L.A.: A Version, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2020); Searching the Sky for Rain, Sculpture Center, New York (2019); Soundtracks, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2017); and Geometry of Now, V-A-C Foundation, Moscow (2017). Other solo presentations include those at 356 Mission Rd. and Human Resources, both in Los Angeles. She is represented by François Ghebaly, Los Angeles and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.