Grown From the Same Stem, the Cord Still Hums
August 28, 2026
International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 N Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
Grown From the Same Stem, The Cord Still Hums centers on a long green fabric tube that eventually fills the gallery space, connecting two flower sculptures. The tube references both a shared stem and an umbilical cord: the oldest bond between two bodies, present before language, before memory, before separation, and the origin of all distance that follows. The artist wears a large flower headpiece, beginning wrapped near the second flower, from which her mother’s voice emanates, humming a Chinese song she taught the artist in childhood, recorded over a video call across an ocean. At times the recording falters. Lag and interference are introduced into the mother’s voice, and the sonic texture of distance is made audible. Over the course of the performance, the recorded voice transforms, becoming mixed with versions of itself, sounds of oceans, fragments of childhood, and ambient sounds from her mother’s environment in Beijing.