Cherrie Yu

My work grounds itself in my understanding of the relational, the processual and the allegorical. They are ontological inquiries that take the form of solo performances, object installations, and more recently video and choreography. I often name my works “studies,” and through making I come to discover that meaning emerges out of differences between the two; that meaning unfolds in time; and that meaning reveals things unapparent on the surface. Through the reception of my works, I also discover that the process of meaning-making is often an emotional one.

I started my art practice about three years ago, as I felt the urge to move the process of meaning-making from the linguistic to the experiential. In the past two years, the study of movement has been central to my inquiry, and I use juxtaposition to explore how everyday movements can be rewritten out of their (extra)ordinary contexts. In my recent video works, a solo by the American dancer Trisha Brown is juxtaposed to the mopping motion of a janitor Homero Muñoz. 15 seconds of a wrestling match were re-enacted in the middle of traffic in downtown Chicago. Through translation, transposition and juxtaposition, seemingly fixed categories of being start to oscillate within and amongst themselves.