Ye Qin Zhu
We are excited to announce this month's installment of our Community Spotlight series featuring artist Ye Qin Zhu. Last year, Ye designed both of our big projects for Beam Camp and Beam Camp City. He is an interdisciplinary artist with a wide-ranging practice that encompasses painting, public art, and social practice. Ye was briefly a member of Beam Center’s staff beginning in 2017 before leaving to pursue his artistic practice. In 2021, he proposed a project through our annual Open Call for Big Projects. Later Ye was asked to also propose a project for our first summer at Beam Camp City.
Ye grew up in a house with a village-style vegetable garden in the cosmopolitan neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He was born in Taishan, China (1986) to farmers who met in the factories of Shenzhen city. His family immigrated to NYC in 1990, and Ye says these histories propel him. Their currents — manufacture and gardening, belonging and displacement, anarchy and citizenry, spirit and material — are split modes that fold over, burrowing and resurfacing. Through art-making, Ye is in conversation with their movements. Visit his website to learn more.
Ye said that through gardening his parents taught him something metaphoric. He said, “They taught me to plant seeds. To nurture a being, to allow it to grow and that’s very profound for me. In my own art practice these days, I think about the idea of gardening a lot. I plant seeds with my practice.”
Ye’s project at Beam Camp 2021, A Universe, was a thirty feet long bottle gourd made of earth (cob and kaolin clay over a steel frame). He says the bottle gourd represents a body. Through the project, Ye “wanted to show that like the bottle gourd which is to represent the universe, which is to represent the body…our bodies can be fused as an instrument, as a vessel.” When it rains, water streams into channels carved on its outside walls and down to the 16 windows (8 on each side), where there are cups that fill up, tip, spill, hit notes, and make music.
Ye also said that he wanted to embed the idea of “the body and our inside-outside world being intricately connected” to campers. “The things that are happening outside also impact how we feel inside. But how do you slow down and appreciate the company of sounds that are happening inside when there are storms in our lives.”
Our big project at Beam Camp City 2021 was CONSTELLATION, was also designed by Ye. CONSTELLATION is a suite of interactive sound sculptures inspired by the concept of asteroseismology - which shows that stars sound like ringing bells - the piece’s six sculptures were placed at scenic locations around Governors Island, creating a constellation of ringing bells.
Credit: Ye Qin Zhu
He said that through the CONSTELLATION he wanted to transform Governors Island into a body like the Beam Camp project. “On Governors Island each of the six constellation pieces there’s a sense organ, there’s an ear, eye, nose, a mouth and that is a metaphor in saying ‘hey you know Governors Island is also a body’ and these pieces are connected,” Ye added.
Ye said that while working with youth last summer he learned to “collaborate with a lot of stakeholders. I had to think about not only my vision but the vision of Beam Center and also the vision of what the Governors Island wants and also the vision of what the students want.”
He also said Beam has positively impacted his life. He also added, “Beam is a beautiful and safe space to explore, make, learn, and grow, at any level in my creative life.” He believes the power of Beam is its “trust in youth leadership and community.” He continued to say, “Youth culture changes so quickly, and it is important to let those who will be impacted by Beam's programs lead the programs so that Beam can evolve with the times and continue to be engaging on all these different levels of education.”
On October 15th, Ye has a solo show coming up at Harkawik Gallery, 30 Orchard St, NYC, as well as several group shows nationally and internationally for the next six months. Ye is one of the leading members of the On Memory team, working with residents of New Haven, CT and local organizations to transform contaminated land into a healing garden and art park in the most pandemic-stricken neighborhoods.
Ye has a message for those that are considering submitting proposals to Beam’s Open Call. He said, “Think big, be ambitious, not only in terms of the size of your project but how many people will be impacted, and the depth of impact.”
Thank you for being part of the Beam community, Ye!
