Cornerstone Exhibition Text | Allison Peters Quinn, Curator

Certain spaces generate a sense of belonging and connection to something bigger than ourselves. A grassy field, a place of worship, or a home–all of these sites have a history that predates our experience there and impacts the energy of the space. The exhibition Cornerstone introduces a suite of elements-driven artworks created by Yasmin Spiro to consider the intersections between land, body, memory, and architecture. Spiro’s massive abstract forms combine soft and hard materials, generating a makeshift environment designed by the artist to offer an alternative sacred space that elicits a sense of rootedness through kinship with the natural world.

For over two decades, the Jamaican artist has examined the physical and psychological effects of histories of migration and colonialism. Layered with aspects of the island’s ecology, architectural structures, land ownership, and socio-political history, this new series of artworks–mostly made during Spiro’s Jackman Goldwasser Residency at Hyde Park Art Center–emphasize the hybridity of Jamaica's culture and people through the immersive installation including sculptures, sound and scent work, video, and weavings. Spiro began this series by making over 70 ribbed porcelain tiles and vessels* that conflate the rippled forms of a corrugated metal roof, common in Jamaican construction, with flesh-toned folds to reference the sensory aspect of the body in architecture. Although the word cornerstone identifies the first-laid stone of a building that sets the foundation for all the other surrounding stones, Spiro uses the cornerstone as a metaphor for home and the feeling of being grounded in an identity that is shaped by ones homeland. 

Spiro’s loosely woven and cast sculptures stand out for their ability to transform functional labor materials like jute rope, erosion cloth, burlap, coir, clay, and wood palettes into complex, tactile expressions of a blending of cultures and stylistic influences. The visceral fiber and installation work of the 1970s by women artists Ana Mendieta (Cuba), Jagoda Buić (Croatia), and Magdalena Abakanowicz (Poland) are elemental to Spiro’s coarse aesthetic and sense of scale in relation to the body. The Japanese philosophy of building harmony between humans and nature is practiced in Spiro’s balanced and fluid compositions inspired by her own practice of Ikebana, the art of arranging flowers. Similarly, the marine rope and wood frames in Shelters are stained with Japanese sumi ink, a black liquid pigment made from pine soot, and gives the work an aged appearance that references geologic time. History is also experienced through short segments in the sound element in Cornerstone, which incorporates field recordings from rural Jamaica with Gregorian chants recorded by the artist in 2021 in a medieval church in France. Through her expansive work, Spiro engages the viewer physically, emotionally, and sensorially, fostering a deeper connection to the natural world while reflecting on personal and societal narratives.

Through Cornerstone, Yasmin Spiro creates a visual dialogue about the ways in which materials carry meaning, evolve through process, and anchor our understanding of place and identity. Her research-based art practice guides us through histories, geographies, and built and natural environments to challenge a one-sided perspective on how we see the world and our place in it. 

*Spiro created the majority of the porcelain forms during the Kohler Arts/Industry Residency supported by Kohler Co, and the John Michael Kohler Center. 

Cornerstone is curated by Allison Peters Quinn, Executive Director & Chief Curator, Elmhurst Art Museum.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation Research and Production Fund

Additional support provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and The Joyce Foundation,