“It is also not uncommon for an artwork to be humorous, but when paired with irony, it’s devilish partner-in-crime, and delivered with enough conviction, it has the ability to punch you in the gut, and then leave butterflies in its wake. It’s this fluttery feeling which Yee generously leaves us with, allowing us a bit of respite and a little ease from the burdening realities we know all too well. We grasp onto this feeling, and might even find ourselves basking in it. For what it’s worth, to me, it’s a feeling close to joy.”
“The challenge of acquiring languages is knowing in which context a word, a turn of phrase, or an expression fits naturally. In sifting through the ambiguities that surround language usage, meaning can be reimagined, innovated, transformed, and reclaimed. Text, the semiotic carrier of meaning, is fertile for the investigation of our textualized experiences.”
“The ironic deployment of the proof format drives home the point that photos are “unable to capture all facets of lived experience.” […] Yee’s ultra-structured embroidery reminds us of the foundational limitations of sterile, institutionalized queer archives. Yee imparts that there must be room left for the messy, the illegible, and the imperfect, so that we may peer at the unseen. This obscuration lives between the cracks of a decaying structure, and if we look closely, we can catch a glimpse of something precious.”
“As Yee carefully noted friendships, kindnesses, and shared pleasures, I came to see these references to community as acts of citation, a gesture woven into their practice at large. “
“Recently my friend and mentor Nasrin Himada recommended Gayatri Gopinath’s book, Unruly Visions: The Aesthetic Practices of Queer Diaspora, and I wasimmediately struck by the framing of aesthetic practices over aesthetic forms because of thevalue I place on feminist process. Gopinath’s affi rmation of nonnormative life paths andtheorizing around “states of suspension” was generative for me in conceptualizing the groupexhibition, cause to become.”
“Sharper Tools for Unripe Fruit, negotiates the mistrust between the viewer and the monumental, presenting a series of handmade propositions that reimagine the act of commemoration. This reimagining, however, remains skeptical and iterative, questioning the inescapable instability of the author’s position relative to these larger historical narratives.”
“This leaves little space even for intersecting identities within the community. Contradicting this discourse, Yee’s work presents a broadening space, through their exploration of the roles of solidarity and queerness in diaspora.
“A self-described recovering workaholic, Florence Yee, who is based in Montreal and Toronto, speaks to the nuanced politics of our time. You Listen Better to Echoes, on view until Feb. 12 at The New Gallery in Calgary, examines race, multiculturalism, labour and institutional politics using sheer layered fabrics and sewn text.”