Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork

This presentation marks the first solo museum exhibition of Los Angeles–based artist Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork (b. 1982, Long Beach, CA), whose practice engages sound as both conceptual and literal material. Building on her ongoing explorations into sound as an architectural form, Kiyomi Gork has transformed the Project Room into a maze, revealing the integral—yet invisible—role that sound plays in shaping one’s perception.

Titled Into/Loving/Against/Lost in the Loop (2023), the installation features an electronic beat generated from live audio pulled from the surrounding galleries. Inside, the rhythmic pulse of the beat is amplified and distorted through spatial and material interventions, such as speakers and sound blankets, reflecting the artist’s sculptural use of objects commonly associated with noise control. The circuitous structure of the maze underscores the feedback loop inherent to hearing, wherein, according to Kiyomi Gork, “What you hear affects how you move and how you move affects how you hear.” As its title suggests, Into/Loving/Against/Lost in the Loop describes the multifaceted nature of the feedback loop, speaking to simultaneous sensations of agency and loss of control, collectivity and isolation. Here, soundwaves vibrate through the body and orient the visitor as they navigate the maze’s twists and turns—at once transported away from, and brought back to, their own embodied experience. In calling attention to the somatic quality of sound, Kiyomi Gork blurs the distinctions between audience, performer, audio, and architecture to create a heightened awareness of the dynamics of perception.