CONFLUENCE

05.10.2024 – 05.17.2024

Performance

Friday
05.10.2024
Door at 5:00 p.m.
Show at 5:30 p.m.

"Confluence" is a collaboration project between ten visual artists and ten composers based in Baltimore. And it's their second action.

The twenty participants engage in a more organic approach: each individual serves as both a planner and a creator. Some are friends, while others are strangers. Drawing from their diverse professional backgrounds, each member offers valuable assistance to others. The exhibited works reflect their personal experiences of migration, grappling with a plethora of ideas, experiences, and emotions stemming from life in a foreign land. Simultaneously, they aim to challenge established geographical and ethnic identity-based frameworks prevalent in the art world, such as "East Asian" or "Asian". Grounded in their own stories and their immediate surroundings, employing concrete practices to dismantle misconceptions by Western institutions, such as the definition and presentation of art.

On a bigger picture, "Confluence" is a celebration of the possibilities of trans-disciplinary collaborations. It is also a manifesto of the importance of such collaborations especially in the current global context where wars, climate change and extreme inequality demands solutions created across disciplines and boundaries.

"Confluence" features works by: Heejo Kim, Sally Hyun, Grusha Sabharwal, Hua Xin, Jiangshengyu Nova Pan, Yenhsing Chen, sagar kamath, Heather Ahn, Songhyun Moon, Yanqi Chen, Ashling Han, Yizhen Lyu, Austin Chia, Yan FANG, Liu Yefu, Heng Lin, Yoon Jung Lee, Yoonjung Lee, Jeehee Yoo, Jun An Chew.

This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of T. Rowe Price and Tour de Force.

Synesthesia

MICA X Peabody Artists collective

How they work

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) & Peabody Institute (Peabody) Collaboration Group is an artist-composer collective established in 2023. Comprising one organizer from each institution, we select an equal number of students from both schools. Each team pairs a MICA artist with a Peabody artist to collaboratively craft a single work of visual art and music.

MIssion

Originating with a mission to amplify the voices of underrepresented Asian artists, our journey has evolved. As we realize this can restrain many aspects our collaboration can improve, we've expanded our focus. As of 2024, our initiative welcomes any artist encountering challenges in presenting their work to the public, particularly due to foreignness. By creating a community to share ideas and our works, we aim to open discourse with not only between fellow artists and composers, but also with our audience. This exchange of creativity will inspire artists and composers to persist in their practice, and continue both personal and professional growth. We expect our community will positively influence the Baltimore art scene, given that all participants have resided in the city for at least two years, deeply engaging in its cultural ecosystem.

Goal

We aim for our collaborative endeavors to become a regular event. Our immediate goal is to provide both participants and Baltimore community a creative event annually. We are confident that by combining the resources and talents of two leading art and music schools in the region, we can cultivate a strong creative force to be shared with the Baltimore community, and will have positive impact to each other, encouraging mutual enrichment.

To achieve this, the support of local art spaces is crucial. While the primary purpose of our collaboration is to share our work with public, we know we cannot do this alone. With the assistance of Area 405, we trust this event can help us to progress to the next step.