Musicians : Nikki Naghavi (Violinist), Lemuel Marc (Trumpeter),
Leo Weisskoff (Bassist), Chihiro Asano (Vocalist), Tianyi Wang (Composer)

Exhibition Artists: Jaden. S , Grace. J, Lee K 

Miru’s inaugural exhibition brings together fine art and live music with a nod to the gallery founder’s ongoing experience with chronic illness. In Lines and Points our artists playfully return to the building blocks of art-making, with NEC musicians giving improvisational concerts in response to the works on view. As children learn their shapes in their earliest days, dots and lines are essential to both musical notation and mark-marking in visual art. With curiosity and repetition, new combinations of these foundational ingredients generate images or constellations of sound. When prolonged sickness and disability alter the body’s capacity, these familiar ingredients could be a place to return to – somewhere the body can reach for when it's ready to play again. In sickness we return to basics, and learn our shapes once again.

 

Without the ability to read music a composer uses dice to write scores. In this personalized language the amount of dots rolled on the dice signify different musical notes. Inspired by this novel approach to a familiar toy, Grace J invites viewers to move the dominoes and blocks on their artwork to co-create new combinations.

 

Walking with the aid of a crutch presses circles into the ground with each step. Legs swing in a gentle arch, crutches tap the ground on impact – a cyborgian rhythm is made. If crutches frame each footstep with a pair of points, riding on a wheelchair prints a pair of parallel lines onto the ground. These forms of movement and mark-making played on Jaden S’s mind as she created the paintings on view.

 

What comes into view as we rest from illness? With luck, flowers in a vase brought by a loved one. In Lee K’s artwork botanicals rest against a backdrop of windowpane shadows. Exchanged across occasions as expressions of care, flowers suggest to the recipient both stillness and growth.