Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios

Charleston, SC | Fall 2024

FSA’s Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios honored Fall 2024 Artists-in-Residence, Jennifer Wen Ma and Cheselyn Amato. Both artists unveiled new work made during their residencies in Charleston in their open studios and discussed their collaborations with local museums and congregations. Please see below for a video interview and photo documentation for each artist.

 

Jennifer Wen Ma Open Studio

As part of FSA’s Inspired Garden Party and Fall Artist-in-Residence Open Studios, internationally renowned interdisciplinary artist Jennifer Wen Ma featured calligraphic meditations from her residency pondering questions of artistic sustainability: What replenishes the spirit? How does the artist nourish the source of creativity and protect it from running dry? Over 15 years, Ma has honed a grounding practice of calligraphic writing concurrent with creating her large-scale installations and public artworks. Drawing from the “I-Ching” or “Book of Changes,” a 9th century BCE Chinese text, Ma has ruminated on this divination manual as one of her philosophical sources of ancient wisdom.

Receiving the “Well” 井 hexagram, “a source of inexhaustible replenishment,” as her residency meditation, Ma spent six weeks researching and repetitively writing a series of Chinese calligraphic characters as her primary centering process. As a part of her daily residency practice, Ma has invited members from the larger community of Charleston into her studio, while preparing a pot of tea to share, offering a reflection on her meditative process, and invited participants to draw together on the 100-meter-long (328 foot) scroll. Ma explains: “A well doesn’t move locations, run dry, nor overflow. It gives to all who seek. It requires constant maintenance and steadfastness to the end in order to benefit from its nourishment.”

 

Cheselyn Amato Open Studio

Cheselyn Amato Open Studio

As part of FSA’s Inspired Garden Party and Fall Artist-in-Residence Open Studios, California-based multimedia artist Cheselyn Amato featured new iterations of her “efflux” light sculptures, installed in her studio. Referring to “a divine outpouring from each reverberating soul,” these “effluxes” are made from radiant film, a mirror-like flexible material with iridescent hues activated by light. Sculpting the diaphanous material into forms resembling gestured movement, Amato applies the Fibonacci number sequence (where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers) to determine the shapes of the radiant film. The phosphorescent color combination of each sculpture’s visible frequencies is contingent upon light direction. The surface that receives the light directly produces free-form phenomena and certain colors. The light that goes through produces in-focus, hard-edged shapes, all dancing as cinematic projections on the gallery walls.

Amato incorporates aspects of mysticism, sacred texts, and Judaic spirituality that reciprocally flow into her work as an artist and chaplain. Drawing upon mystical Kabbalah texts, such as the Tree of Life (a diagram mapping the flow of creativity to manifestation), Amato envisions her work articulating a collective journey towards spiritual wholeness. Internalizing these overlapping realms – divine and human, spiritual and material – Amato directs us to in-between spaces, where thresholds and boundaries undergo radical transformation. Accompanying hospice patients in critical and transitional states, Amato perceives the liminal space where spirituality in art subsists.

Photography by Paul Cheney

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Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Communal Drawing Participants, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Jennifer Wen Ma, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. 100-meter-scroll, ink, brushes, texts.

Cheselyn Amato, “Gesture for Love, Transformation and Peace: Beacons of Interconnectivity and Connection (detail),” 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, “Gesture for Love, Transformation and Peace: Beacons of Interconnectivity and Connection (detail),” 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, “Gesture for Love, Transformation and Peace: Beacons of Interconnectivity and Connection (detail),” 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, "Experiential Room Installation," 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, “Cradled Bones Ascending on a Wingspan,” 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, “Egg in the Steward’s Apron,” 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, “Contraction: Bursting Forth,” 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, “Contraction: Bursting Forth,” 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, sketch for “Radiance on the Mounts,” 2024.

Cheselyn Amato, "Bouquet," 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

Cheselyn Amato, "FSA Open Studio," 2024. Radiant film, wire, and light.

FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, Fall 2024

FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, Fall 2024

FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, Fall 2024

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Jennifer Wen Ma Open Studio Curatorial Statement

Cheselyn Amato Open Studio Curatorial Statement

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Jennifer Wen Ma Residency Page

Cheselyn Amato Residency Page