Downtown, Los Angeles
Young Joon Kwak
Glitter Mani Fest
Commonwealth and Council"Femmmes (Nic, Toria, Yara) begins as what the artist describes as a “performance gone wrong.” The event of this work’s casting was part of Femmmes, a June 2024 art happening organized by LA Freewaves and staged outdoors, at the Los Angeles State Historical Park, around the corner from the Women’s Building on the edge of downtown. Three trans/nonbinary femmes, former students, mentees and friends of the artist’s, participated in this difficult casting. The material didn’t set; Nic Brannen, Yara Colón, and Toria Kahni Shi had to be cut free. I witnessed this myself: it was not easy—each movement had implications for the others caught in this embrace. Instead of turning away from the performance’s remnants, Kwak reconstructed the form, tending to its breaks and ruptures without hiding its scars. The exterior of this work, which faces the wall and is barely accessible to the visitor, is covered with over 10,000 rhinestones. The “inside” of other works, open for us to explore, shows us the skin of their subjects—pores, wrinkles, folds are all there for us to see..." —Jennifer Doyle