CalArtians Curate Exhibition the body is a blade (that sharpens by cutting)

Curated by Vinhay Keo (Art MFA 20) and Evelyn Hang Yin (Art MFA 20), the body is a blade (that sharpens by cutting), runs Oct. 9-Dec. 4, 2021.

On Oct. 9, the body is a blade (that sharpens by cutting), an exhibition curated by CalArts alums Vinhay Keo (Art MFA 20) and Evelyn Hang Yin (Art MFA 20), opens at Fellows of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. 

The exhibition title is a quote from the poem “Headfirst” by acclaimed author Ocean Vuong, whose work explores the impact of the United States’ wars and how bodies are inheritors of violence. The show is also in response to the violent mistreatment of marginalized and othered bodies, especially within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest in opposition to systemic racism, and the 2020 United States presidential election. 

Featured in the exhibition are artists Samira Yamin, Kenneth Yuen (Art MFA 20), and Charlotte Zhang (Art BFA 21). Their work brings forth “a cosmology of discourses surrounding the neo-orientalist gaze at the Middle East, material phenomenology, and dis-/re-figurement of the body in order to pierce through the dangerous narrative surrounding generational violence,” according to the program. 

The exhibition, which runs through Dec. 4, 2021, will also include an accompanying catalog with writings by Sarah Yanni (Critical Studies MFA 20), CalArts Writing Center Fellow.