O-1 Visas
Humans face a moment of great irony: we have overrun the planet, and yet multiple countries face potential demographic collapse. Meanwhile A.I. threatens to make us redundant on levels emotional, intellectual, and productive. Where does reproduction fit in? It’s a question at the heart of Belongings, Yidi Wang’s recent solo show at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago. The nineteen wombs of “Blueprint,” each 3-D printed in rosy translucent resin and fitted with a clear tube leading to a central glass tank, are empty. That could suggest open-ended possibility, barrenness, or some Matrix-type nightmare. “Imprint,” too, features a grouping of biomorphic forms tethered to a central source, but here the shapes—slightly gross silicone casts from unidentifiable parts of the artist’s body, stitched into rough pockets containing small audio speakers—are full and their source is electrical energy. They emit a cacophony of female voices, the sounds of mothers and daughters, because human reproduction and all that goes with it is, for now at least, irreplaceable.
—Lori Waxman 2025-08-29 2:04 PM