On Saturday, October 7 from 2 to 6 pm, please join us for STRANDS, a special presentation and performance of three artists, Amabelle Aguiluz, Joy Wu and Si Jie Loo, in partnership with the Culver City Arts District.

Amabelle is a fiber artist and sculptor with extensive background in clothing design, Joy is a masterful Chinese dulcimer player trained in China Central Academy Of Fine Arts who also plays the electric bass, and Si Jie is an ink painter who dives into the spirit of ancient China to contemplate modernity. All of them work in mediums that are traditionally passed down from generation to generation but yearn to grow and innovate in this ever changing world as citizens of today.

The performance piece is a visualization & reenactment of how  ‘strands’ is perceived by three female Asian artists: Amabelle Aguiluz, Joy Wu and Si Jie Loo. These artists are using traditional tools to give voice to contemporary issues, using lines from textile, brush strokes and instruments to connect us, bind us, and hopefully de-tangle all the knots of illusions that are detracting us from the ‘truth’. Two 15-minute performances are scheduled at 3 pm and 4 pm.

“Strands” draws from these artists’ unique mediums and perspective to demonstrate a common contemplation of the past and future, traditions and modernity, eastern and western art practices, and the struggle to juggle multiple identities, such as women and artist, ALL at once within one given time and space.

Amabelle Aguiluz has joined Helms as an artist in residence from September 21 thru October 8. You may visit her in the studio on Tuesdays from 11:00 am to 3 pm.

About the Artists

Amabelle Aguiluz is a fiber artist living in Los Angeles. She expresses the flow of life as an infinite web of interconnections using the medium of fiber as a symbolic map; linking us to the past, revealing stories about culture, and connecting us together. Her preference for using found materials allows her time to explore the process of transformation while collecting and analyzing the materials of her production. Amabelle uses her art as a means to connect with history, nature, and her surroundings. Her practice incorporates clothing, textile, sculpture, and installation processes that are presented as free form sculptures and are often incorporated into live performance, video, and photographs. She studied at Politecnico di Milano, Italy and graduated in 2011 from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York BFA in Fashion Design. Aguiluz’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including the La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles in Outaouais, Canada.

Si Jie Loo is a multi-disciplinary artist who is interested in capturing the spirit of humanity, primarily with Chinese Ink. She received her BA from Dartmouth College with an honors in Studio Art and has since exhibited in both US and Malaysia. As an artist in the diaspora, she is constantly on the move between places, cultures, music genres and languages. One of Si Jie’s creative processes involves tapping into the spirit of Ancient China by embarking on an annual art pilgrimage through various region in China. She inks down captivating people, musicians, dancers and nature on the road to further inspire her studio work. Most recently, she traveled to the Tibetan plateau and the Silk Route in Northeast China. Since returning from her art residency in Malaysia last December, Si Jie has been working from her home studio in Santa Barbara, occasionally spotted taking pottery classes, dancing, drumming and practicing Taichi in her community.

Joy Wu is a musician and a lover of culture, music, film and art. She started her music journey at the age of four, influenced by her dear grandmother. Trained in classical music, she went to Central Conservatory of Music, in Beijing, China, for her traditional Chinese instrument Yangqin. Joy is a member of China Nationalities Orchestra Society, CNOS. To follow her love for American culture, she moved to California and received her BA from UC Santa Barbara. Joy is currently based in Los Angeles.

About Yangqin: Yangqin is also called “Chinese dulcimer”. Similar hammered dulcimers are played in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Portugal, Italy, India, Iran and Pakistan. The origin of Yangqin is still a mystery to us today. Many historians say it is originally from Persia, now modern Iran, during the Ming Dynasty (late 14th c. to 15th c.) through the Silk Road. Others say it is introduced by sea through the port of Canton during the 16th century when the Portuguese and Italian traders performed for locals. It has been in China for hundreds of years. The construction of Yangqin has a considerable resemblance to Iran’s Santur. It has five bridges, up to 140 more strings, and to play with a pair of hammers made with bamboo.