An installation at MASS MoCA
North Adams, Mass / Open since May 2022
Curated by Denise Markonish
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“The room is there for the human being –
not the human being for the room.”
– El Lissitzky
Amy Yoes creates rooms for humans, rooms that are alive, that beckon us to inhabit and interact to the point where room, human, and activity blur. Yoes’ process begins by amassing a visual language decades in the making, which she employs across all media. Inspired by sources such as fleeting urban streetscapes, marginalia and typographic ornament, 18th-century textile designs, hot rod detailing, Renaissance-era optical devices, and early 20th-century constructivist environments like those of Kurt Schwitters and El Lissitzky, Yoes mutates these references into her own marks, forms, and imagery. The result is the creation of dynamic environments that play with light, structure, and entanglement.
For Hot Corners, Yoes has transformed this 142-foot long gallery into a multi-room, immersive complex. Each of the installation’s five rooms—the Foyer, the Parlor, the Library, the Theatre, and the Drawing Room—incorporates custom-built and repurposed furniture, which acts as shifting set pieces for various functions including viewing, reflection, socializing, art-making, and scheduled performances. The rooms encourage play, togetherness, and creativity, eschewing the static in favor of evolving possibilities.
Each room in Hot Corners has unique characteristics, evidenced by the dramatic shifts of color and floor painting, which pull viewers from one space to the next. Throughout the show, monochromatic diorama-like displays contain elements that allude to the ephemeral nature of all things, such as remnants from Yoes’ Fire Project #10, which took place in the summer of 2021. The Foyer serves as the entrance/exit to the space, and features a sculpture from Yoes’ Wayfinder series; the Library holds the artist’s book projects; the Drawing Room includes stencils for for use in scheduled workshops; The Parlor is for socializing and features wall works and paintings from Yoes’ Foldings series; and finally, The Theater’s stage will be used for a video program curated by the artist, with pop-ups in both video and performance organized by the museum.
In the end, Hot Corners combines Yoes’ passion for architecture, period rooms, interior design, and decorative arts in a dynamic environment that serves as a destination space for participation and the contemplation of a room for the human being.
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Generous support for Hot Corners is provided by the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation.
Programming at MASS MoCA is made possible in part by the Barr Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, and the Joe Thompson “Yes” Fund
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The artist would like to thanks: Paul Bartow, Art Bentley, Spencer Byrne-Seres, Anthony Cafritz, Pearl Cafritz, Dani Case, Gregorio Chavez-Valenzuela, Jorge Colombo, Tavish Costello, Stephen Earle, Alex Fabry, Chuck Fischer, Tom Friedmann, Mitchell Gross, Greg Hall, James Harmon, Jenny Hillenbrand, Mary Jane Jacob, Henry Kunkel, Mike Kurpiel, Abby Lutz, Peter Mahoney, Denise Markonish, Will McLaughlin, Kristy Morris, Cassidy Ohl, Josh Provost, J. Morgan Puett, Nna Ruelle, Luis Salazar, Megan Tamás, Christine Tarkowski, Sofia Taylor, Jon Verney, Zavc Ward, Olivia Wolf, Alton Wright, Steve Ziaja, Mildred’s Lande, Salem Art Works, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Fiber and Materials Studies and 280 wood shop.
