Screenshot of the Queens International 2018 website, which is meant to function as an alternative experience of Volumes and is developed by artist Ryan Kuo with research support and motion graphics from Taekeun Kim.
The Queens Museum presents the eighth Queens International. Since its inauguration in 2002, this biennial exhibition has highlighted the contemporary cultural production of Queens communities in formats driven by the artists represented, the perspectives of its curators, and current social and cultural issues. QI 2018, titled Volumes, follows in this tradition, and for the first time includes a partnership with the Queens Library. Queens International 2018: Volumes offers a unique opportunity to address the relationship between two closely connected public organizations. While they employ different methods and have inherited different histories, both are ever-evolving in response to the community, emergent technologies, and cultural shifts.
QI 2018: Volumes departs from the notion that whether libraries and museums feel static or active we wander and chart our own paths through them—spatially, temporally, and even virtually. The word volumes encompasses many historical and current meanings in this context. Stemming from the Latin volumenus, in 13th century France, volume referred to a scroll of writing on parchment or something that is rolled or turned. In 16th century England, the word came to mean “quantity” and “a book forming part of a set.” Between the 18th and the 21st centuries, volume acquired its relationship to degrees of sound, physical dimensions, and units of data storage. With QI 2018 we also encourage poetic readings of volumes in relation to plurality, materiality, and space, especially the turns we can take through it.
QI 2018 artists represent a dialog among Queens-connected producers of several generations, including for the first time artists who have exhibited in earlier Internationals. The artists’ works respond to sites throughout the entire museum and select Queens Library branches. They question and expand systems of knowledge production using both analog and digital strategies. They rethink histories and policies through embodied experience, redemptive archives, subjective abstractions, and intangible architectures. Via these methods, they explore the potential for a nonlinear progression of time and correspondingly, a fluid approach to space.
Participating artists:
Damali Abrams, Haley Bueschlen, Gabo Camnitzer, Emmy Catedral, Camel Collective (Anthony Graves and Carla Herrera-Prats), U. Kanad Chakrabarti, Jesse Chun, Oscar Rene Cornejo, Chris Domenick, Brian Droitcour and Christine Wong Yap, ray ferreira, Christina Freeman, Milford Graves, Janet Henry, Camille Hoffman, Kim Hoeckele, Heidi Howard and Liz Phillips, Qiren Hu, Juan Iribarren, Paolo Javier and David Mason, Peter Kaspar, Patrick Killoran, Ernesto Klar, Essye Klempner, Mo Kong, Ani Liu, Umber Majeed, Emilio Martinez Poppe, Gloria Maximo, Asif Mian, Wardell Milan, Beatrice Modisett, Arthur Ou, KT Pe Benito, Gabriela Salazar, Raycaster (Ziv Schneider and ~shirin anlen), Jaret Vadera, Mary A. Valverde, Cullen Washington, Jack Whitten
QI 2018: Volumes is organized by QM Assistant Curator Sophia Marisa Lucas, with New York-based performance artist Baseera Khan and additional collaborators at the Queens Museum and Queens Library including. An exhibition website and web-based catalog accompany QI 2018, co-edited with QM Curator Larissa Harris, with design concept and development by Queens-based artist Ryan Kuo.
