Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang: Never settling into the stability of objects, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, USA
In Never settling into the stability of objects, 2022–2023 Fellow Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang (鄭慧蘭) presented a new body of work consisting of sculptural weavings and paintings that foreground the resilience and bonds of her Chinese-Guatemalan diasporic kinship networks. Looping metals, entangled natural and synthetic fibers, and strung black beans gesture toward the intimacies and movements of her ancestors, seeding connections that honor their various migrations and everyday environments.
Throughout the past few years, Coc-Chang has been collecting food remnants and ephemera from Latin America and Asia, such as consumer food wrappers, corn husks, and avocado seeds, which are sourced from family, friends, shared meals, and local restaurants [from Guatemala City to Hialeah to New Haven, and places in between]. This ongoing exchange is not only a ritual, but a means of returning to/enacting ancestral guidance. She draws inspiration from her guiding lights: the creative sensibilities of her mami and papi, the spiritual practices of and for ancestors, and the ways of being of those on the margins.
