Jenny Yurshansky: Rinsing the Bones
18th Street Arts Center is pleased to present Rinsing the Bones, a solo exhibition by Jenny Yurshansky, curated by Karen Moss, which explores how generational displacement passes the embodied trauma of dislocation onto future generations. During the past two years, Yurshansky held a series of community-based workshops in the greater Los Angeles area for participants to tell their migration story, whether it be personal or ancestral. The resulting materials formed the foundation of the exhibition featuring all new works, including an installation scale quilt comprised of illustrated family narratives; audio testimonials in the form of playable, eroding, X-ray film records; bone-like 3D-printed sculptures of participant’s treasured handheld heirlooms; and photograms resembling airport X-rays. During the exhibition, on view July 8 – November 30, 2023, the public is invited to share migration histories, excavate memories held in the body, and explore inter-generational trauma. Yurshansky provides opportunities for healing and empathy, creating a safe space for visitors to add their voices to the “unfolding narratives” they may discover through this communal social fabric.
Born stateless to Soviet refugees, Yurshansky’s personal experiences led her to research the shared pain, loss, and trauma of displaced persons. Rinsing the Bones examines the patterns of migration’s repercussions and offers ways for people to translate that experience and connect themselves to that ordeal through the stories of their families. Says Yurshansky, “Through my practice, I’m exploring the indelible impacts on generations whose history is one of being forcibly cast out. What are the long-term consequences felt by those who continue to live in places that forced “others” out? What are the voids left in the wake of these ruptures? How have the losses in cultural memory been manifested?” The artist focuses on the gaps resulting from displacement and the difficulty with the word “home” as an uncertain location outside the frame of nostalgia.
Yurshansky has invited The Running Stitch, a Los Angeles-based quilt collective to be guest artists in her exhibition, Jane Elfarra, Kamila Jeevanjee, Anjum Khan, Tahereh Sheerazie, and Ramza Saliefendic–– five Muslim women from six different countries–came together in 2001 for their love of quilting, sewing, crocheting and knitting. The “running stitch” is the signature on their quilts that they have sold to contribute to charitable projects around the world including supporting survivors of the earthquakes in Baam, Iran in 2003 and in Pakistan in 2005; Hurricane Katrina in 2006, and assistance to recent flood victims in Bangladesh. Yurshansky invited The Running Stitch to show their quilts with the aim to share with audiences the significant social impact of their quilting, to inspire others and to sell their work to help carry on their artistic and altruistic efforts.
Public Programs
During Rinsing the Bones, there will be monthly events, including the following:
Saturday, July 8, 3 – 6 PM: Opening day artist and curator’s walk-through, Unfolded Narratives drawing workshop, also present will be members of The Running Stitch, a quilting collective, who are guest artists participating in the exhibition. Free and open to the public. Register here >>
Saturdays, August 5, September 16, October 21 and November 11, 1- 4 PM:
Unfolded Narratives drawing workshop and Rinsing the Bones workshop including interviews by the artist, 3-D scanning and photography of participant’s keepsakes.
Free and open to the public. Register here >>
Jenny Yurshansky received her MFA in Visual Art from UC Irvine (2010) and was a post-grad in Critical Studies at the Malmö Art Academy. Her solo exhibitions include: There Were No Roses There,” American Jewish University (2022), Blacklisted: A Planted Allegory, Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles (2020), Emerging Artist Series, Pitzer College Art Galleries (2015), and the Stockholm Royal Institute of Art (2015). Recent projects include: We are all guests here, a commission at Bridge Projects (2021), and a series of over 40 virtual workshops during COVID hosted on behalf of American Jewish University; Fulcrum Arts; the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster; Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and Pitzer College, among other institutions offering the public a way to maintain a sense of community, connect to social justice issues, and participate in somatic activities that focused on breath and landscape.
Yurshansky was awarded a Teacher Artist Fellowship by the Center for Craft in North Carolina (2023), and Pitzer College Art Galleries published her artist book, Blacklisted: A Planted Allegory (Recollections) (2018), with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Other honors include Maria Bonnier Dahlin’s Stipend from Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm (2010); Swedish Arts Grants Committee (2011-2017); HaMiffal Art Collective (2017), Yiddishkayt (2016), Asylum Arts (2015), the Stockholm Royal Institute of Art (2014), and Uppsala Municipality’s Artist Stipend (2013). From 2011-15 Yurshansky was co-founder and co-director of Persbo Studio, an artist residency, sculpture park, and creative space in Sweden.
Yurshansky received a City of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship from the Department of Cultural Affairs along with an exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (2019) and has participated in other group shows, including A NonHuman Horizon,” at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2019), the Mexicali Biennial (2018-19), Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm (2016), Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (2012), the M HKA in Belgium (2011), as well as Laguna Beach Art Museum, MAK Center, LAXART and Torrance Art Museum and the Armory Center for the Arts (all in 2010), Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art in Malmö (2005), Hammer Museum (2003), 7th Istanbul Biennial (2001), and the Toyota Museum in Tokyo (2001).
COLLABORATORS
Jenny Yurshansky thanks the following partners, in-kind contributors and individuals:
The Running Stitch, exhibition guest artists and workshop partners, whose active members are Jane Elfarra, Kamila Jeevanjee, Anjum Khan, Tahereh Sheerazie and Ramza Saliefendic.
This project and process could not have gotten to this stage without the incredible support of the Wende Museum and these additional funders and in-kind partners: Bemis Center for Contemporary Art; California State University Fullerton, Prototyping Lab; California State University Long Beach, 3D Design Lab; Crystal Forge; Center for Craft: Teaching Artist Cohort Fellowship; Meep Records; Metropolitan Community College; Pasadena Art Alliance; University of California, Irvine Studio Art Department; Heart of Los Angeles; Roski School of Art and Design, University of Southern California and Westridge School, Steamworks Lab.
The generous humans who have been involved in these institutional and personal contributions are Michael Balot-Garza, Adam Baumeister, Tanya Brodsky, Frida Cano, Andy Fedak, Kenneth Heinze, Nara Hernandez, Abel Horwitz, Jesse C. Jackson, Cara Megan Lewis, Henry Littleworth, Benjamin Lord, Mick Lorusso, Linh Mac, Stefan Meyer, Rachel Miller, Karen Moss, Alexandra Pacheco-Garcia, Charlie Pyott, Britt Ransom, Roy Regev, Rotem Rozental, Josh Schaedel, Matt Schrader, Vicki Phung Smith and Lorraine, Rima and Michael Yurshansky.
SUPPORT
Funding and support for this exhibition is provided by LA Arts Recovery Fund, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, National Endowment for the Arts, Pasadena Arts Alliance, Perenchio Foundation, Santa Monica City Cultural Affairs, Warhol Foundation and 18th Street Arts Center’s generous Board and donors.