THE BURNING KITE
Curated by Dolly Bross Geary, Michelle Y. Loh, and Kristen Lorello
On view at Kristen Lorello, New York, NY, and Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY
Kristen Lorello, New York, NY June 17 - July 23:
Noa Charuvi, Jacob El Hanani, Cui Fei, Francesca Gabbiani, Goldschmied & Chiari, Mahmoud Hamadani, Nancy Lorenz, Alan Prazniak, Katy Schimert, Sun You
Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY, June 12 - July 25:
Scott Alario, Eve Biddle, Olivier Catté, Lisa Corinne Davis, Catherine Haggarty, Christopher Saunders, Ping Zheng
Ouyang Jianghe
The Burning Kite
Translated from the Chinese by Austin Woerner
What a thing it would be, if we all could fly.
But to rise on air does not make you a bird.
I’m sick of the hiss of champagne bubbles.
It’s spring, and everyone’s got something to puke.
The things we puke: flights of stairs,
a skyscraper soaring from the gut,
the bills blow by on the April breeze
followed by flurries of razor blades in May.
It’s true, a free life is made of words.
You can crumple it, toss it in the trash,
or fold it between the bodies of angels, attaining
a permanent address in the sky.
The postman hands you your flight of birds
persisting in the original shape of wind.
Whether they’re winging toward the scissors’ V
or printed and plastered on every wall
or bound and trussed, bamboo frames wound with wire
or sentenced to death by fire
you are, first
and always, ash.
Broken wire, a hurricane at each end.
Fire trucks scream across the earth.
But this blaze is a thing of the air.
Raise your glass higher, toss it up and away.
Few know this kind of dizzy glee:
an empty sky, a pair of burning wings.
As the three organizers began their collaboration, they discovered emotional and philosophical resonance in a poem by a member of a group of Chinese writers referred to as the Misty Poets. The poem “The Burning Kite” by Ouyang Jianghe served as a guide as they chose the artists for the exhibition.
The poem speaks with a kind of ironic toughness, distrustful of consoling illusions. The works in this group explore uplifting feelings and the freedom to create, while at the same time acknowledge the difficulty of letting go; a mood of the times. Ouyang’s poem offers a way to process this moment of living during the pandemic; to reflect not only on what has been lost, but also on what has been given and transformed during this past year.
