Orlando Museum of Art - JEFRE Points of Connection

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All we can do is trust the points will always connect...

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Published in conjunction with the exhibition

JEFRË: Points of Connection Orlando Museum of Art October 3, 2020 - January 3, 2021 Catalogue designed by Augie Martinez Printed by Sundance USA, Orlando, Florida ISBN: 978-1-880699-24-9 Library of Congress Number: 2020923057 Orlando Museum of Art 2416 North Mills Avenue Orlando, Florida 32803 Telephone: 407.896.4231 Facsimile: 407.896.9920 www.omart.org Copyright © 2020 Orlando Museum of Art All artwork © the artist.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the prior written consent of the Orlando Museum of Art, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) is a regional asset, member organization of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), Blue Star Museum, and a catalyst for life-long learning in service to the central Florida community and visitors from around the globe. Funding for the Orlando Museum of Art is generated through earned income, with generous financial contributions from the Board of Trustees, the Museum’s Ambassadors, Council of 101, the City of Orlando, Orange County Government through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program, Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Winifred Johnson Clive Foundation Trust (A. Friends’ Foundation), Bank of America, the Warren and Augusta Hume Foundation, Rita and Jeffrey Adler Foundation, Walt Disney World Company, the Chesley G. Magruder Foundation, United Arts of Central Florida with funds from the United Arts Campaign, UCF Foundation, AdventHealth, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Walker & Company, Inc., CNL Charitable Foundation, PNC Foundation, Sam Flax Art & Design Supplies, Truist Foundation, Publix Super Markets Charities, anonymous donors, members, corporations and foundations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01

FOREWORD

Luder G. Whitlock, Jr. / Interim Executive Director

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INTRODUCTION

Hansen Mulford / Senior Curator

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JEFRË: OPEN HEART Erin Jenoa Gilbert

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PLATES

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EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

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MUSEUM STAFF

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FOREWORD

LUDER G. WHITLOCK, JR. INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

COVID-19 had a dramatic impact globally in 2020, and its effects are still being felt. The museum world was hard hit, resulting in the cancellation of exhibitions and severely reduced attendance at many cultural institutions. The Orlando Museum of Art was no exception.

Therefore, it was especially gratifying to open the highly anticipated JEFRË: Points of Connection exhibition in October 2020.

I am grateful to Hansen Mulford, longtime Orlando Museum of Art Senior Curator, and his staff for their expertise in planning and implementing this exhibition. Hansen is superlative in knowing what fits best at given times. JEFRË’s presence and cooperation with the staff made a huge difference in all the details of installation and readiness for the exhibition.

Numerous Orlando dignitaries were present for the premiere, due to the particularly high level of interest. After all, JEFRË has won many sculpture competitions globally, and his art is prominently placed in major global cities, from Abu Dhabi to London to Philadelphia.

Special thanks are due to our two presenting sponsors, Dr. Phillips Charities and AdventHealth, whose support was pivotal to the exhibition. We also wish to express appreciation to our supporting sponsors, The Mall at Millenia and Monster XP. I am also grateful to Ayo The Producer for creating the exhibition soundscapes, to independent curator, Erin Jenoa Gilbert, for her contribution to the exhibition poem and the catalogue essay.

JEFRË, a Filipino-American artist who was born in Chicago, has since made Orlando his home. He already has created dramatic works locally, such as the Code Wall and the 60-foot-tall Beacon, both at Lake Nona, and the Stargate sculpture at AdventHealth in Winter Park. He has also been commissioned to create a 30-foot public art sculpture, Family Tree, in Orlando. Hence the enthusiastic response to his first solo exhibition, a response heightened by JEFRË’s engaging presence and personality.

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This exhibition represents the commitment of the Orlando Museum of Art to provide the most compelling art for the public to experience, believing that art can positively affect lives and enrich society. JEFRË: Points of Connection is an ideal example of that commitment.

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hills of an Asian landscape. The white and brown rice is laid out in thirteen bands that reference the stripes on the flag of the United States and form meandering pathways inviting the viewer to imaginatively roam the field and envision their own journey.

The first stanza of Heart to Heart begins with “Asia setting sun, Ocean blue journey…” while the gallery is filled with a soundscape created by Ayo the Producer (Austin Owens), an American GRAMMY awardwinning artist who collaborated with JEFRË to compose three works for the exhibition.

INTRODUCTION The Orlando Museum of Art is committed to bringing new recognition to outstanding contemporary artists working in Florida and is pleased to present JEFRË: Points of Connection, the first museum exhibition of this Central Florida artist who has achieved an international presence. For more than a decade JEFRË has been engaged in producing large-scale works for public spaces in the United States and the Philippines, garnering increasing attention and success over time. Among his notable works are Reflection, Philadelphia (2010) and Unity Plaza, San Antonio (2012), which were catalysts for commissions in his family’s homeland of the Philippines. There he created his Contour Sculpture Series (2015), Talking Heads (2016), and Heaven’s Gate (2019) in the capital city, Manila. He is currently working on a 24-story-high standing figure with arm raised, titled The Victor. Located at a bridge connecting the Philippine cities of Pasig and Quezon, once completed it will be one of the world’s tallest artworks, and its projecting light a beacon of unity for the two cities.

JEFRË is also well known for a number of innovative works that have become Central Florida landmarks. These include The Beacon (2016) at Lake Nona Town Center, which combines elegant architectural design and dazzling digital projections. This 60-foot-high work anchors the site along with The Code Wall (2016), the architectural façade of the adjacent parking garage composed of an aluminum sheathing cut through with binary codes, and #diamonddog (2018), a large-scale reflective sculpture located in a nearby plaza. More recently, JEFRË has created Stargate (2020), a monumental 3

HANSEN MULFORD SENIOR CURATOR

abstract stainless steel sculpture accompanied by sculptural seating for a new park at AdventHealth, Winter Park, and other public artworks are in planning. These works command the open spaces they occupy, serve to connect people with their surrounding community, and stand as iconic landmarks for their locales.

JEFRË: Points of Connection presents a new range of the artist’s works scaled to a gallery space, in the formal context of a museum setting. With a series of sculptures and interactive installations, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the artist’s personal history as it relates to his development as an artist and introduces the current direction of his studio practice. Guiding visitors on this journey is the poem Heart to Heart, with stanzas in each gallery. The poem illuminates the artist’s thoughts about his family’s history, their immigration to the United States, the trauma of a life-threatening illness, and his vision for art that can connect people through the expression of shared emotions and aspirations.

As a first-generation American, JEFRË has experienced the many opportunities of living in the United States, along with challenges that include confronting ignorance and prejudice about his Philippine heritage. Rice Field (2020), the exhibition’s first installation, is a reflection on that heritage, his family’s immigration, and the obstacles that must be overcome along the way of life’s journey. Over 1,700 pounds of expired white and brown rice have been sculpted in an undulating topography that could suggest ocean waves, or the rolling

In 2008 JEFRË suffered a major heart attack. Only 35 years old at the time, he was diagnosed with chronic heart disease. The heart attack and diagnosis altered the course of his life. Until that point, he had been working with a large firm in landscape architecture and urban design. The heart attack became a time to imagine a new direction, motivating him to embark on his own practice as an independent artist, creating sculpture and environmental installations for public spaces.

JEFRË: Points of Connection is an opportunity for the artist to revisit this critical moment and evaluate its continued impact on his life with new works created for the exhibition. Working with AdventHealth, JEFRË was given access to a collection of vascular stents used to treat patients like him with blocked arteries. Stents are small, delicate devices made of clear plastic and wire mesh that are inflated once in place. JEFRË inserted several stents into arum lily blossoms, then, working with a photographer and x-ray technicians at the hospital, he produced a series of photographs and x-ray transparencies in which the stents appear to be the flowers’ pistils. Astonishingly, these high-tech medical devices seem to be an organic part of the flower, visually making a connection between the lifesaving stent and the flower’s symbolic expression of rebirth and renewal.

JEFRË’s heart attack was a point in his life when many things changed, some by choice and others by necessity. One lasting change is the need to maintain a daily routine of ingesting the medications which treat his chronic heart condition. While he is fortunate to live in a time when lifesaving medicines exist, the quantity, cost, and time invested in maintaining such treatments can be overwhelming. In My Body: 56,345 Pills (2020) is a mound of pills that estimates the number of pills he has taken since 2008. It is a meditation on the physical and psychological effects that such a volume of substances must have on the body and spirit.

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The exhibition introduces a new group of large figurative works in polished stainless steel. They are part of the ongoing Baks Series, named for the phonetic pronunciation of the word “box” in American English. Baks figures are archetypes representing people who give life and character to cities around the world. For the artist, people are the “building blocks of the city,” and by converting the heads of his sculptures to box shapes, JEFRË connects these figures to urban architecture. Their poses and gestures further the allegorical meaning of each figure as the embodiment of such affirmative attributes as love, joy, faith, passion, and empowerment, among many others.

Interactivity is an important strategy that JEFRË employs to actively engage viewers in exploring the meaning of his work. Moved

by Black Lives Matter demonstrations that arose worldwide over the summer of 2020, JEFRË created one of his Baks figures in the now iconic gesture of taking a knee with one arm raised in a fist. The artist calls upon the viewer to respond to the question projected on the wall above the figure: “What does it mean to take a knee?” A QR code link is provided for viewers to post their answer and have them immediately projected on the same wall. These diverse answers roll in a column that grows with each new response, building an archive which will be forever part of the work.

Occupying a gallery of their own, One Peace, One Love (Baks Series) (2020) are two figures sitting in Lotus position, an ancient spiritual pose intended to connect the body to the life force of the universe. The 15-feet-high steel figures sit back-to-back, one female and one male, transferring their energy to one another and to viewers who enter the gallery. Each figure makes a gesture with their hands meaning “love”; one in the shape of a heart represents the conventional Western sign for love, and the other in the shape of two crossed fingers represents the sign commonly used in Asia.

The two figures share one head, a white cube. In the gallery, a kiosk equipped with a facial recognition sensor captures the viewer’s eyes and projects them on the four planes of the head. For a moment, the viewer becomes part of the work and its expression of our shared humanity. Ayo the Producer once again has created a soundscape that fills the gallery. Underlying the atmospheric composition is the slow rhythm of a heartbeat at rest.

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In the last stanzas of JEFRË’s guiding poem Heart to Heart, he reflects on today’s interconnected world, a world in which he, as an artist with an international practice, is a participant and an observer. The many things that divide us, geography, nationality, language, culture, and now a pandemic, must be continually negotiated to accomplish artistic goals, while on a higher level they must be overcome for all of us to move forward. Are there aspirations shared by people which offer the possibility for connection and progress?

As the poem closes, there is a recitation of empowering declarations that JEFRË feels are collectively embraced: “I am Free, I am Love, I am Passionate, I am Brave….” As he does with his sculptures, JEFRË seeks language that is iconic, and which conveys meaning that resonates with the temper of our contemporary moment.

The poem accompanies Talking Heads (Collective Conscious Series/ COVID-19) (2020), an installation of 15 six-foot-high clear Plexiglas heads suspended from the ceiling, that seem to float in the gallery space. Inside each head is one of JEFRË’s declarations in LED neon light: “I am Brave”, “I am Confident”, “I am a Survivor” … each word in a different language. Together the flashing lights and Ayo The Producer’s ambient sounds evoke the urban environment of an international city, home to a diverse global population. On the floor beneath the heads are QR codes that allow visitors to hear every word pronounced in its original language and see it translated into English on their phone screen. The interactive feature entices the viewer to explore the installation, discover the languages, and contemplate their meaning. With Talking Heads (Collective Conscious Series/COVID-19) the exhibition brings viewers from the artist’s personal history explored in Rice Field to an immersive installation that explores our common humanity through shared ideas and experiences current in contemporary culture.

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JEFRË: OPEN HEART “My work originates from a simple desire to make people aware of their surroundings and this can include not just the physical but the psychological world that we live in.” - Maya Lin Inspired by interdisciplinary artist Maya Lin, Filipino-American artist JEFRË’s first museum solo exhibition JEFRË: Points of Connection, features site-specific works and outdoor sculptures. Born in the US to Filipino parents, and trained as a landscape architect, in this exhibition JEFRË poses several questions: What are the physical and psychological impacts of immigration? What does it mean to be American? How does an artist engage an audience in crisis? How can an artist respond to a simultaneous global pandemic, police brutality, and protests?

Entering into the first gallery, one encounters Rice Field (2020), a landscape, a mound-like structure, where millions of grains of expired brown rice encircle millions of grains of expired white rice.

Over 1,700 pounds of expired rice ebb and flow, like water, into pinnacles and pitfalls. Poetically the eye wanders through this subtle yet politically charged landscape. Although composed of the staple crop of many Asian countries, these contoured and contorted rows of rice represent the 13 stripes of the American flag. Rice is the food that links the country in which JEFRË’s parents were born and the country in which he would be born and become a citizen.

BY ERIN JENOA GILBERT

Like Maya Lin’s Landscape (2006), JEFRË’s Rice Field is a site-specific installation which was originally intended to be an ambulatory experience. To traverse these grains of rice would be a slow, arduous process, though at first glance it may seem akin to walking on a beach. Standing at the edge of the installation seems akin to standing at the shore. Though serene, this space signals the trauma of displacement, the perils of crossing contested terrain, and the dangers of overproduction and overconsumption in America. In the contemplative moment when the viewer considers the difficulty of walking through rice, the perception of the land around him or her shifts. As viewers question whether or not they will be able to cross safely to the other side, they begin to understand the conundrum of the American immigrant.

The millions of grains of rice in this installation symbolize both the distance from a geographic landscape and the disillusionment with an economic landscape. Standing on US soil, JEFRË reflects on the everyday life of Philippine men and women who cultivated rice fields for export to the US, aspiring to alleviate poverty. JEFRË states, “rice was not only a food, but a visual topographic landscape.” On the wall, two minimalist compositions made of the same expired brown and white rice evoke the rural landscapes and rice fields painted by Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972), the first National Artist of the Philippines. With intense light emanating from the center of the canvas, JEFRË’s Horizon Line Series, Sunrise (2020) and Horizon Line Series, Sunset (2020) specifically evoke Amorsolo’s infamous Rice Planting (1922), which was made during the American colonization of the Philippines.

Amorsolo was known as “The Painter of Philippines Sunlight” because his illuminated landscapes displayed the magnificence of the country’s sunshine and portrayed traditional Filipino customs, culture, fiestas, and ordinary occupations, such as rice harvesting and mango picking. His pastoral works presented “an imagined sense of nationhood in counterpoint to American colonial rule” and were important to the formation of Filipino national identity.1

World heritage Ifugao Rice Terraces in Batad, Northern Luzon © R.M. Nunes / Shutterstock

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Born to immigrant parents just outside of Chicago, Illinois, JEFRË found himself displaced from Philippine culture and identity. An effect of displacement is dis-ease. In JEFRË’s case specifically, that dis-ease manifested in his heart. At the age of 35, JEFRË, standing on a beach in Miami, Florida, suffered a heart attack.

In the second gallery, a screen projects JEFRË’s EKG reading; red and blue lights flash in the rhythm of his erratic heartbeat upon entry to the hospital on the night of his triple bypass surgery. In the center of the room, a sculpture composed of four tiny silver wires stands alone. These wires are the almost invisible stents which, now installed in JEFRË’s arteries, allow proper blood flow. They are also projected onto two smaller grisaille x-ray lightboxes of lilies whose pistils have been replaced with stents. As one watches an accompanying video of the expansion and contraction of the stents, one automatically inhales and exhales in rhythm with them. Subconsciously, the artist, having lost his breath during the heart attack that changed the course of his career, reminds us of the beauty and fragility of breathing.

Twelve years after the triple bypass surgery, not a day goes by when JEFRË doesn’t take his pills. His daily routine requires that he swallow 12 pills per day: six in the morning and six in the evening.

As one enters the gallery, 16 glass shelves, similar to those found in the medicine cabinet behind the mirror in a bathroom, hold 16 rows of empty pill bottles representing the medicine that JEFRË himself has consumed. Hundreds of ready-made amber bottles with white safety caps and white CVS labels detailing the patient’s name, prescription, and date of disbursement operate like found objects. Resting on these glass shelves, they represent a sample of the pharmaceutical drugs Plavix, Crestor, Metoprolol, and Ramipril which the artist has taken on a daily basis from 2008 to 2020. This site-specific installation also contains examples of the Morphine and Oxycodone prescribed for the pain immediately following JEFRË’s open-heart surgery, pointing to another type of overproduction and consumption in America.

Medicine Library (2020) converts a conversation about death to a conversation about life. This conversation was initiated by Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy (1992). Also composed of readymades, Hirst’s installation was originally conceived as a homage to his grandmother using the contents of her medicine cabinet. It evolved into a restaurant in London where Hirst enjoys pretending to be a chemist writing therapeutic prescriptions for the addicts who are his clients. He knows that he is dispensing placebos or sedatives, Prozac for the eyes. But he takes

his professional duty seriously. Drug dealers dispense calm (or frenzy, if that’s your preference) and artists too, like lay priests, trade in reassurance. 2

A second work in the center of this room tempts the viewer to touch or to take the pills him or herself. JEFRË poured pink, white, yellow, black, and blue two-piece hard capsules over a round plinth forming a circular pyramid. This tactile object offers the viewer insight into the exact quantity of prescription drugs that had entered the artist’s body through his daily ritual through the date of the work’s installation. As the gelatin and cellulose two-piece hard capsules slowly decompose in the sunlight, melting into one another, the question of intestinal permeability arises. How do these materials pass through the body?

Processing disease, coping with the constant threat of death, was also a prominent subject addressed by the artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

He is famous for conceptual works like Untitled (Portrait of Marcel Brient) (1992), a candy spill that entices the viewer to participate by taking a candy, a seemingly innocent act which renders the viewer complicit in the disappearance of the body represented by the sculpture. Cuban-born and openly gay, Gonzalez-Torres died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 38. The candy pile sculpture dissolves only through engagement with the public; in this way the private death is understood as a public health issue. Using the same conceptual strategies for the pill sculpture, JEFRË asks the viewer to consider the opioid crisis not as personal but as a political, public health issue. The two works combined query why Americans pop pills like candy.

Entering the main gallery, there is a physical and metaphysical light.

Each sculpture reflects and refracts this luminosity, transmuting positive energy throughout. Each figurative, fractal box head sculpture, called Baks, stands alone, yet they are not lonely. Upon encountering these objects, a comparative analysis of the work of Kaws, Murakami, and Koons automatically ensues.

Kaws, a Brooklyn-based graffiti artist, illustrator, painter, sculptor and designer, is considered the leader of a new generation of urban street artists. Influenced by Keith Haring’s Pop Shop (1986-2005), Kaws both critiques consumerism and explores the possibilities of collaboration with commercial enterprises. His signature sculptures are larger than life, rotund, vibrantly-hued, acrylic, cartoonesque sculptures titled Companion, Accomplices, Chums or BFF’s. Crossing out and covering their eyes, Kaws appropriates the iconography of Mickey Mouse, the Smurfs, and the Michelin Man. Titling a major exhibition Companionship in the Age of Loneliness, Kaws adapts 8

imagery of childhood to interrogate the state of adult relationships.

What is not obvious to the American viewer, is the Asian root of this aesthetic. Visiting Japan in the late 1990s, Kaws was inspired by the otaku subculture and its obsessions with characters and collectibles.3 Otaku is the obsessive collection by superfans of apparel, paraphernalia, CDs, DVDs, comic books, magazines, collectible figures of cartoon anime, or video game characters. Though originally used to indicate inclusion and insiderness, it has been perceived as a pejorative term for over 20 years. Otaku came to identify people considered detached, undesirable, socially unacceptable, excluded, outsiders. However, in 2000 the otaku became acceptable, even desired, as Takashi Murakami’s “superflat” interventions, sculptures, and installations garnered commercial attention and critical acclaim. Murakami referenced otaku as source material as he critiqued consumerism and appropriated American pop art strategies. Though his hybrid cartoon character Mr. DOB has been most often the subject of his paintings, sculptures, and installations, it was My Lonesome Cowboy (1998) which catapulted Murakami to superstardom.

While the subjects of JEFRË’s Baks sculptures may relate to the cartoonesque compositions of Kaws or Murakami, the shiny stainlesssteel mirror surfaces refer to the seduction and commercial success of works like Rabbit (1986) and Balloon Dog (2013) by pop artist Jeff Koons. But the fractal sculptures also evoke the artistic legacy of avant-garde Filipino artist Eduardo Castrillo (1942-2016) “whose large welded-metal sculptures are displayed in Manila’s Memorial Park.” 4 It is perhaps the legacy of Castrillo, creator of the People Power (1993) and Inang Bayan (1992) monuments, that JEFRË begins to illuminate.

Accessible to children and adults, these figurative sculptures with reflective surfaces are without faces, as JEFRË reimagines them in a surrealist mode, cutting off, covering, or in this case, replacing the human head with a non-human form. Their heads have been replaced by blocks, cubical forms, Baks that mimic the skyscrapers that form the urban landscape. These Baks heads evoke boxes of technology: the television, computer, or smartphone screen, suggesting an augmented or virtual reality. Faceless, nameless, and reflective, they make the viewers subconsciously envision themselves as the subject of the sculpture.

Their suspended movements are universal gestures. A man of faith has hands clasped and head bowed in prayer. Another is seated with

arms outstretched as though he intends to take flight in joy. One stands looking at his watch as if time is of the essence. Another stands authoritatively, pelvis propelled forward with hands on hips, empowered. One sits with two hands forming a heart signaling love.

Another sits with arms slightly lifted holding two fingers in the sign of peace. In the center of the room, a male and a female figure, legs elongated, inextricably intertwined as they glide across the dance floor evoke passion. For JEFRË these people, these principles, are the building blocks of the city.

Figurative, yet not fully human, these statues composed in fractal angles that borrow the language of modern architecture and the scale of midrise buildings melt into the skyline of all modern cities across the globe. Named for the emotions they evoke, these sculptures are not identifiable by race, ethnicity, or nationality; they are in fact global citizens. They embody the anxiety and aspirations of contemporary society.

Imbued with spiritual powers, these caricatures cast in stainless steel, in seemingly innocent poses, become superheroes. Polished until the surface mirrors the American aspiration for wealth, power, and fame, the sculptures, at nine-foot height and higher, have the potential for monumentality. What situates these sculptures in a particular time and place, what makes them monumental? A monument is defined on Wikipedia as “a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical, political, technical or architectural importance.”

In another gallery a figure sits alone. He is on bended knee, head bowed, fist raised. On September 1, 2016, Colin Kaepernick, then in his sixth season as quarterback for the NFL San Francisco 49ers, protested racial inequality and injustice, particularly the police brutality toward Black men in America, by kneeling during the pregame ceremony as the national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner” was sung. In doing so, he exercised a constitutional right, joining a long line of professional athletes who used their platforms to influence national and international politics. At the time Kaepernick told reporters, “I don’t understand what’s un-American about fighting for liberty and justice for everybody, for the equality this country says it stands for.

To me, I see it as very patriotic and American to uphold the United States to the standards that it says it lives by.” 5 Though considered a hero to human and civil rights activists, Kaepernick was released from the 49ers six months later, and four years later, a martyr, he

still has not been signed to an NFL team.

This sculpture, titled Kneel (2020), not only draws on the iconography of Colin Kaepernick, but draws on the iconography of the Black Power salute, a posture made famous by Tommie Smith and John Carlos. On October 16, 1968, after winning the 200-meter race at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, gold medalist Smith and bronze medalist Carlos, stood on the podium during the medal ceremony with heads bowed, fists raised, facing the American flag as the crowd sang the American national anthem. As they descended, the crowd booed and later the Olympic committee attempted to strip them of their medals.

Today, as century-old monuments to confederate and colonial victors are being removed, this sculpture commemorates the men and women who hold America accountable for upholding the language of the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal.”

On May 25, 2020, people throughout the world, paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, watched on their televisions, computers, and smartphones while Derek Chauvin, a White police officer, knelt on George Floyd, a Black man, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. After watching his last breath, people throughout the city of Minneapolis, then the country, began to chant “I Can’t Breathe” as they marched through the streets. For the next 30 days, cities throughout America were sites of contestation. Kneel also memorializes the 19 people who lost their lives in the protests between May 27 and August 29, 2020.

Notes: 1 “Fernando Cueto Amorsolo (1892-1972),” Philippine Art Gallery, https://www.philippineartgallery.com/fernando-amorsolo.html#:~:text=Rice%20 Planting%20(1922)%20was%20the,on%20posters%20and%20tourist%20 brochures.&text=His%20pastoral%20works%20presented%20%E2%80%9Can,formation%20of%20Filipino%20national%20identity.

2 Peter Conrad, “I Have to Admit It: I Was Wrong about Hirst,” Guardian, September 13, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/sep/14/damienhirst.art 3 Steph Harmon, “‘It Has Created a Sense of Hostility’: How Kaws Made the Art World Pay Attention,” Guardian, September 19, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/19/kaws-artist-exhibitons-melbournelondon-brooklyn 4 “Culture, Art and Architecture,” Countries Quest, http://www.countriesquest.com/asia/philippines/culture/art_and_architecture. htm#:~:text=Sculpture%20took%20on%20secular%20themes,in%20classical%20 sculpture%20in%20Rome.

5 Des Bieler, “Colin Kaepernick Comments on Bills Fans, Says Anthem Protests Are ‘Very Patriotic,’” Washington Post, October 17, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/10/17/colin-kaepernickcomments-on-bills-fans-says-anthem-protests-are-very-patriotic/’

A projection on the wall above the work asks the audience to answer the question “What Does It Mean to Take A Knee?” Kneel democratizes and demystifies art, engaging a truly diverse audience.

As one enters the final gallery of the exhibition, there hang 15 fivefoot acrylic heads. Inside each head is a thought word. Each mind has a voice. Each thought word is written in a different language.

Standing in this room, one hears multiple voices, multiple languages, chanting mantras, in turn, as they are activated, that begin with the phrase “I am.” Both the act of listening and of speaking connect individuals who, wearing masks and standing six feet apart-socially distanced-cannot otherwise connect. The point of connection is these thoughts, words technologically transcribed in neon glow as a singular thought in the universal mind - the collective conscious.

The combined effect of these installations is empathy: empathy that transcends nationality, race, ethnicity, language, gender and sexual orientation.

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HEART TO HEART Asia setting sun

Awakened (resurrected) I

A new will

Ocean blue journey

Crossed over into a sacred space

A basket of bottles

Toward

In between skyscrapers

Filled with pills

An illusion of Liberty

Re-envisioning the city

Near the windowsill

A promise of Freedom

Placemaking and creating community

Breathing

Finding a path

In synch with the skyline

At dawn

Wading through the remnants of rice fields in my mind

Internationally

Breathing At dusk

Ancestral shrine Generations of family we left behind

Internal conversations

Twisting bottles one by one

Walking forward

The intention is to construct the iconic

Counting

A postcard from your favorite place

Swallowing pills

Ocean blue journey Moonlit beach Midnight rhythms Erratic heartbeat Life of the party Some-one stand-ing on my chest I heard next

Or post a pic A collection of structures In my mind’s eye Became sculptures, works of art I created with Open hands and open heart

Altered landscape Virtual reality Where peace and love have the highest value On a pedestal We view Projections thereof

S-t-I, EKG, stat

Reflections

Beams of light

Of self - actualization

Closed eyes

Individual and collective

Airport terminals Running to gates Crossing borders New territories Ghost voices, city sounds Alleyways of neon Celebration of art Dedications, parties and press cons Awards, recognitions, paparazzi Grounded Life on Pause 6’ apart Reset for reflection Defining a new normal The voices in my head...

Chant in unison I am Free I am Love I am Passionate I am Independent I am Brave I am Confident I am a Survivor I am Unique I am a Dreamer I am Creative I am Kind I am Respectful I am Beautiful I am Sensitive I am Blessed My heart beats I can breathe

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Asia setting sun Ocean blue journey Toward An illusion of Liberty A promise of Freedom Finding a path Wading through the remnants of rice fields in my mind Ancestral shrine Generations of family we left behind Walking forward

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Rice Field 2020 Expired white & brown rice 4 x 40 x 18 ft.

Swinging Bowls 2020 Soundscape by Ayo the Producer

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Scan to hear soundscape or visit omart.me/point-bowls

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(Left to Right): Horizon Line Series Sunrise / Sunset 2020 Mixed media, A.P 73 ½ x 61 ½ x 2 ¾ in. (each) 19

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Ocean blue journey Moonlit beach Midnight rhythms Erratic heartbeat Life of the party Some-one stand-ing on my chest I heard next S-t-I, EKG, stat Beams of light Closed eyes

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Heart Attack 2020 Video, flat screen, Sensitile acrylic, steel and concrete, Edition 1/3 60 x 36 ½ x 6 in.

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(Left to Right): A Flower in Bloom Series X-Ray 1 | X-Ray 2 2020 Film and medical lightboxes 18 ½ x 14 ¼ x 3 ½ in. (each) 24

A Flower in Bloom 2020 C-print on canvas 73 ¼ x 49 ¼ x 2 in.

25

Right: A Flower in Bloom (stills) 2020 Video Dimensions variable

A Flower in Bloom (detail) 2020 Inflated arterial stents 20 ½ x 4 ½ x 4 ½ in.

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28

A new will A basket of bottles Filled with pills Near the windowsill Breathing At dawn Breathing At dusk Twisting bottles one by one Counting Swallowing pills

29

30

Medicine Library 2020 Empty prescription bottles 31 x 132 x 4 ½ in. (installation) 31

32

In My Body: 56,345 Pills 2020 Empty pill capsules 21 x 48 x 48 in.

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34

Awakened (resurrected) I Crossed over into a sacred space In between skyscrapers Re-envisioning the city Placemaking and creating community In synch with the skyline Internationally Internal conversations The intention is to construct the iconic A postcard from your favorite place Or post a pic A collection of structures In my mind’s eye Became sculptures, works of art I created with Open hands and open heart

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36

Installation View of the Baks Series 2020 Stainless Steel Dimensions variable

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38

Nona 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/100 36 x 27 x 18 in.

39

Joy (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 8 x 9 ¼ x 7 ½ ft.

40

Love (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 9 ¼ x 4 ¼ x 3 ft.

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42

Peace (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 9 x 4 x 5 ½ ft.

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44

Passion (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 9 ¼ x 5 ft.

45

Faith (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 3 ½ x 3 ft.

46

Empowerment (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 4 ½ x 3 ft.

47

Time (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 4 x 2 ½ ft.

48

Open Arms (Baks Series) 2020 Painted stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 10 x 3 ¼ ft.

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50

A series of audience responses:

Kneel (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 6 ½ x 2 ½ x 5 ft.

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Equality

Togetherness & Unity

LISTEN to us!

Stand up 4 humanity

Love for everyone

Reflection

Taking a stand

Compassion

**** the Police!

Pardon

Strength

To Be Heard

Solidarity

Unity

Help

RESPECT

Love

Pause for others

WhenWeFall,WeRiseUp

Opposition to injustice

Diluted power

Equality for all

Choosing truth

Lucha por Libertad

Supporting Humanity

Disrespect 4 others!

Unity

Believe in yourself

Dismantling a system

Stand for something

Happy soul.

Peace and Unity

to be human

resist hate

Community

ONE LOVE

Never forget

to pay respects

No to injustice

waiting for change

Unity for all

Respect

Understanding

I can do it!

Need something

Awareness

Love

Be proud

use your voice

Appreciate

Praying

Peace

Solidarity

Equal justice soon

Love

Unity against injustice

Life

black lives matter

Respect

Amour

Making a statement

Define yourself!

Empathy

Unity

Courage

Love for all.

Courage

**** the **** of ***

We DESERVE justice!

Decision

Compassion

Equality

Unpatriotic

to love others

Togetherness

Liberation

Peace & Respect

Call to arms

Breonna Taylor

Equality

Cultural Identity

Empathy

Self Empowerment

Paying Respect

To fight for what’s

Demanding equality!!

Black Lives Matter

Respect

respect

Justice

Support...

Respeto

Black Lives Matter!

Harmony with others

Oppose Injustice

Togetherness

Solidaridad

Abolish the Police

stand up for justice

Fight for justice

Love

Acknowledge

Crying out for help

Morals

Improve humanity

Respect

solidarity

Abolish the Police

Dismantle

Taking a stance

COURAGE

Reverence

Humanity

Respect others

Bringing awareness

Equal rights.

Respect

A true American

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!

Supplication 52

Altered landscape Virtual reality Where peace and love have the highest value On a pedestal We view Projections thereof Reflections Of self - actualization Individual and collective

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54

One Peace, One Love (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, artificial moss, MDF, projection, facial recognition kiosk 13 ½ x 6 x 10 ft.

LIFE, 2020 Soundscape by Ayo The Producer

55

Scan to hear soundscape or visit omart.me/point-life

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One Peace, One Love (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, artificial moss, MDF, projection, facial recognition kiosk 13 ½ x 6 x 10 ft.

LIFE, 2020 Soundscape by Ayo The Producer 57

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Airport terminals Running to gates Crossing borders New territories Ghost voices, city sounds Alleyways of neon Celebration of art Dedications, parties and press cons Awards, recognitions, paparazzi Grounded Life on Pause 6’ apart Reset for reflection Defining a new normal The voices in my head...

Chant in unison I am Free I am Love I am Passionate I am Independent I am Brave I am Confident I am a Survivor I am Unique I am a Dreamer I am Creative I am Kind I am Respectful I am Beautiful I am Sensitive I am Blessed My heart beats I can breathe 59

60

Talking Heads (Collective Conscious Series/COVID-19) FREE | LOVE | PASSIONATE | INDEPENDENT | BRAVE | CONFIDENT | SURVIVOR | UNIQUE | DREAMER | CREATIVE | KIND | RESPECTFUL | BEAUTIFUL | SENSITIVE | BLESSED 2020 Acrylic, LED neon, interactive QR Program 58 x 50 x 53 in. (each) Lots of Room, 2020 Soundscape by Ayo the Producer

Scan to hear soundscape or visit omart.me/point-room

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(Left to Right): Talking Heads: CREATIVO | AMOUR | DREAMER (Collective Conscious Series/COVID-19) 2020 Acrylic, LED neon, interactive QR Program 68 ½ x 46 x 30 in. (each) 63

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EXHIBITION CHECKLIST RICE ROOM Horizon Line Series Sunrise 2020 Mixed media, A.P 73 ½ x 61 ½ x 2 ¾ in.

Courtesy of the artist Horizon Line Series Sunset 2020 Mixed media, A.P 73 ½ x 61 ½ x 2 ¾ in.

Courtesy of the artist Rice Field 2020 Expired white & Brown rice 4 x 40 x 18 ft.

Courtesy of the artist Swinging Bowls 2020 Soundscape by Ayo the Producer Courtesy of the artist HEART ROOM A Flower in Bloom 2020 C-print on canvas 73 ¼ x 49 ¼ x 2 in.

Courtesy of the artist A Flower in Bloom 2020 Inflated arterial stents 20 ½ x 4 ½ x 4 ½ in.

Courtesy of the artist A Flower in Bloom 2020 Video Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist A Flower in Bloom Series X-Ray 1 | X-Ray 2 2020 Film and medical lightboxes 18 ½ x 14 ¼ x 3 ½ in. (each) Courtesy of the artist Heart Attack 2020 Video, flat screen, Sensitile acrylic, steel and concrete, Edition 1/3 60 x 36 ½ x 6 in.

Courtesy of the artist 65

BAKS ROOM Empowerment (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 4 ½ x 3 ft.

Courtesy of the artist Faith (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 3 ½ x 3 ft.

Courtesy of the artist Joy (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 8 x 9 ¼ x 7 ½ ft.

Courtesy of the artist Kneel (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 6 ½ x 2 ½ x 5 ft.

Courtesy of the artist Love (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 9 ¼ x 4 ¼ x 3 ft.

Courtesy of the artist Nona 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/100 36 x 27 x 18 in.

Courtesy of the artist

Passion (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 9 ¼ x 5 ft.

Courtesy of the artist Peace (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 9 x 4 x 5 ½ ft.

Courtesy of the artist Time (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 4 x 2 ½ ft.

Collection of Josh Altman

PILL ROOM In My Body: 56,345 Pills 2020 Empty pill capsules 21 x 48 x 48 in.

Courtesy of the artist Medicine Library 2020 Empty prescription bottles 31 x 132 x 4 ½ in. (installation) Courtesy of the artist ONE LOVE ROOM One Peace, One Love (Baks Series) 2020 Stainless steel, artificial moss, MDF, projection, facial recognition kiosk 13 ½ x 6 x 10 ft.

Collection of Virgin Fest (Sir Richard Branson) LIFE 2020 Soundscape by Ayo The Producer HEADS ROOM Heart to Heart 2020 Looped projection Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist Open Arms (Baks Series) 2020 Painted stainless steel, Edition 1/3 12 x 10 x 3 ¼ ft.

Grutman Collection Talking Heads: AMOUR (Collective Conscious Series/COVID-19) 2020 Acrylic, LED neon, interactive QR Program 68 ½ x 46 x 30 in.

Courtesy of the artist Talking Heads (Collective Conscious Series/ COVID-19) FREE | LOVE | PASSIONATE | INDEPENDENT | BRAVE | CONFIDENT | SURVIVOR | UNIQUE | DREAMER | CREATIVE | KIND | RESPECTFUL | BEAUTIFUL | SENSITIVE | BLESSED 2020 Acrylic, LED neon, interactive QR Program 58 x 50 x 53 in. (each) Courtesy of the artist

SOUNDSCAPES Lots of Room 2020 Soundscape by Ayo The Producer Courtesy of the artist Talking Heads: CREATIVO (Collective Conscious Series/COVID-19) 2020 Acrylic, LED neon, interactive QR Program 68 ½ x 46 x 30 in.

Collection of Ayo The Producer

AYO THE PRODUCER

Soundscapes for the exhibition provided by Grammy award-winning artist Ayo The Producer.

LIFE 2020 Soundscape by Ayo The Producer Lots of Room 2020 Soundscape by Ayo The Producer

Talking Heads: DREAMER (Collective Conscious Series/COVID-19) 2020 Acrylic, LED neon, interactive QR Program 68 ½ x 46 x 30 in.

Collection of Aaron Gordon

Swinging Bowls 2020 Soundscape by Ayo The Producer

101 GRAND GALLERY Customer Service Maquette Studio Model 30 x 7 ½ x 7 ½ in.

Courtesy of the artist Customer Service Maquette Studio Model 5 ½ x 10 x 14 in.

Courtesy of the artist Star Gate Maquette Studio Model 12 ½ x 12 x 8 ½ in.

Courtesy of the artist Heaven’s Gate Maquette Studio Model 24 ¼ x 25 x 27 ½ in.

Courtesy of the artist The Beacon Maquettes Studio Model 4 x 4 x 4 in. (each) Courtesy of the artist Concept for the Orlando International Airport Gateway Maquette Studio Model 31 x 29 x 12 in.

Courtesy of the artist Inside the artist studio Video Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist

IMAGE CREDITS All artworks © JEFRË Nuva Photography: (Table of Contents, Pages 2, 5, 17-18, 23-24, 25, 27-28, 34, 39-40, 42, 43-44, 49, 55-56, 58, 63-64, 67, Interior Back Cover) Stephen Allen Photography: (Pages 4, 15-16, 19-20, 31-32, 33, 37-38, 41, 45-46, 47, 51, 57, 61-62) Xuanyi Wang: (Pages 48, 50) Eliani Miranda / Macbeth Studio: (Title Page) Augie Martinez: (Pages 11-12) Orlando Museum of Art: (Page 26)

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

MUSEUM STAFF

INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

EXECUTIVE

Luder Whitlock, Jr.

CHAIR OF BOARD Cynthia Brumback

CONSULTANT Cynthia Wood

OFFICERS

Ted R. Brown Carolyn M. Fennell Patrick J. Knipe Francine Newberg Sibille Hart Pritchard Winifred J. Sharp Andrew Snyder Robert Summers Lance Walker, Jr. Michael Winn Nancy Wolf

TRUSTEES

Leslie Andreae (Ex Officio) Shari Bartz Dustin Becker Caroline Blydenburgh Michael Brown Allison Choate Earl Crittenden, Jr. William Deuchler Mark Elliott (Ex Officio) Elizabeth Francetic (Ex Officio) Ed Herbst (Ex Officio) John Martinez Zakir Odhwani Jennifer O’Mara Paul Perkins Jr. Daisy Staniszkis Jill Toole (Ex Officio) Bruce Douglas (Emeritus)

Interim Executive Director Dr. Luder Whitlock

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Accounting Manager Joann Walfish

DEVELOPMENT Director of Donor and Corporate Relations

Arielle-Christine Study

Accounting Clerk and Human Resource Manager Yasmin Padilla

Major Gifts Officer Mabel Salazar-Wolland

Accounting Clerk Sade Lee

Membership and Annual Giving Manager Kaori Kuahara

Senior Curator Hansen Mulford

Museum Shop Coordinator Sarah Molina

Council of 101 Executive Administrator Paula Reiner

Associate Curator Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon

Museum Shop Associate Christina Stuehrenberg

EDUCATION

Grants Manager and Executive Assistant to the Director Trina Ryan EXHIBITIONS

Registrar Tiffany Recicar Lead Preparator Kevin Boylan Preparator Richard Birkbeck Preparator Nicholas Manders Preparator Alex Ruiz Preparator Elizabeth Walton

OPERATIONS Chief of Operations Stu Worobetz Assistant Chief of Operations Steven Goycochea Facility Rentals Manager Jonathan Von Villas Operations Assistant Leo Cordovi MARKETING Marketing and Public Relations Manager

Curator of Education Jane Ferry Associate Curator of Education and Outreach Programs David Matteson Associate Curator of Community Engagement Molly Lawson VISITOR SERVICES

Visitor Services Specialist Kirsten Pressler Visitor Services Assistant Eric Orengo

Jimmy Sherfey

Graphic Designer Augie Martinez

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