Adele 이슬 Kenworthy
February 18-March 27, 2025
The Durational Performance of Cut Fruit
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington x Amazon HQ2
Innovation Studio Residency
National Landing, VA
During my residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington x Amazon HQ2 Innovation Studio, I explored what natural preservation of unnatural objects look like for archiving memories of matrescence and embodied care.
Reimagining the art of air drying persimmons (gotgam in Korea) through clay, inherited gestures, and NFC tags, I dried over 50lbs of cut persimmons alongside clay sculpted persimmons. Visitors were invited to participate by creating their own clay persimmons and embedding them with a memory they carry for someone they love—recorded as a voicemail.
When a smartphone is placed near a clay persimmon, it activates a link allowing visitors to hear the story held within.
Illustrations by Echo Yun Chen
Workshop photographs courtsey of MoCa Arlington (National Landing, VA) and KID Museum (Bethesda, MD)
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington x Amazon HQ2
Innovation Studio Residency
National Landing, VA
During my residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington x Amazon HQ2 Innovation Studio, I explored what natural preservation of unnatural objects look like for archiving memories of matrescence and embodied care.
Reimagining the art of air drying persimmons (gotgam in Korea) through clay, inherited gestures, and NFC tags, I dried over 50lbs of cut persimmons alongside clay sculpted persimmons. Visitors were invited to participate by creating their own clay persimmons and embedding them with a memory they carry for someone they love—recorded as a voicemail.
When a smartphone is placed near a clay persimmon, it activates a link allowing visitors to hear the story held within.
Illustrations by Echo Yun Chen
Workshop photographs courtsey of MoCa Arlington (National Landing, VA) and KID Museum (Bethesda, MD)
Smithsonian Summer Solstice Saturday
June 22, 2024
We Should Talk:
CUT FRUIT/과일깍자!
National Museum of Asian Art
Washington, D.C.
CUT FRUIT/과일까가! came to the National Museum of Asian Art in 100-degree weather with over 300lbs of Korean melons and Asian pears for their Smithsonian Solstice Saturday celebration. I was joined by artists Xena Ni and Thu Anh Nguyen as I cut fruit for hundreds of visitors and everyone came with the most incredible memories of love and care and visible hope.
For many Asian/Asian American family, fruit is shared as an act of love in abundance, often present at a child’s first birthday celebration in Korea, called a doljanchi; given in oversized boxes as housewarming gifts; and placed at altars for even our ancestors to enjoy.
Instead of price per pound signs, CUT FRUIT/과일깍자! invites us to carry the questions asked between the peels and slices:
what is the first taste you can remember?
what is something you always wished someone had asked and knew about you?
what fruit carries your favorite memories?
who is allowed to gather?
who is allowed rest?
You can learn more about this project at curiosityconnects.us/weshouldtalk
This project is the third installment of the We Should Talk series, created by Philippa Pham Hughes, Adele Yiseol Kenworthy, and Xena Ni. We Should Talk received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and the American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
Design by Ashley Wu
Illustrations by Kristin Tata
Poster by Echo Yun Chen
Photos of the performance taken on film by Lynn Le
CUT FRUIT/과일깍자!
National Museum of Asian Art
Washington, D.C.
CUT FRUIT/과일까가! came to the National Museum of Asian Art in 100-degree weather with over 300lbs of Korean melons and Asian pears for their Smithsonian Solstice Saturday celebration. I was joined by artists Xena Ni and Thu Anh Nguyen as I cut fruit for hundreds of visitors and everyone came with the most incredible memories of love and care and visible hope.
For many Asian/Asian American family, fruit is shared as an act of love in abundance, often present at a child’s first birthday celebration in Korea, called a doljanchi; given in oversized boxes as housewarming gifts; and placed at altars for even our ancestors to enjoy.
Instead of price per pound signs, CUT FRUIT/과일깍자! invites us to carry the questions asked between the peels and slices:
what is the first taste you can remember?
what is something you always wished someone had asked and knew about you?
what fruit carries your favorite memories?
who is allowed to gather?
who is allowed rest?
You can learn more about this project at curiosityconnects.us/weshouldtalk
This project is the third installment of the We Should Talk series, created by Philippa Pham Hughes, Adele Yiseol Kenworthy, and Xena Ni. We Should Talk received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and the American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
Design by Ashley Wu
Illustrations by Kristin Tata
Poster by Echo Yun Chen
Photos of the performance taken on film by Lynn Le
May 19, 2024
Museum Square Blooms
Chinatown Park
I St NW, Washington, DC
There are less than 300 Chinese residents remaining in DC’s Chinatown, many of them our elders and many of them facing active displacement. When Chinatown Arts Studio invited me to join their efforts to #savemuseumsquare without hesitation I said yes.
So much of my work in the last few years think a lot about what happens during occupation and war and what gestures and rituals we hold as places of comfort. And so the idea of home for me is more about how do I carry the memories of geographic longing that belong to my parents, how do I carry the ones that belong to me, and how do I carry both at the same time.
As the fight to preserve the history of Chinatown DC continues by protecting the remaining living residents now, instead of this practice of asking Where are you from? Where are you really from? What is your name? What is your real name?
We can ask:
Where do you claim? What claims you?
How do you carry memories of home?
How do you long to be remembered?
Whose stories do you carry?
Thank you to the organizers for doing the real work, for the opportunity to witness and support, and for believing art and flowers can nourish movements like this.
Immense gratitude for the floral support from Flowers By MJ.
This event was funded in part by the Awesome Foundation.
Visit www.SaveChinatownDC.org to learn more.
Photos provided by Save Chinatown DC
Chinatown Park
I St NW, Washington, DC
There are less than 300 Chinese residents remaining in DC’s Chinatown, many of them our elders and many of them facing active displacement. When Chinatown Arts Studio invited me to join their efforts to #savemuseumsquare without hesitation I said yes.
So much of my work in the last few years think a lot about what happens during occupation and war and what gestures and rituals we hold as places of comfort. And so the idea of home for me is more about how do I carry the memories of geographic longing that belong to my parents, how do I carry the ones that belong to me, and how do I carry both at the same time.
As the fight to preserve the history of Chinatown DC continues by protecting the remaining living residents now, instead of this practice of asking Where are you from? Where are you really from? What is your name? What is your real name?
We can ask:
Where do you claim? What claims you?
How do you carry memories of home?
How do you long to be remembered?
Whose stories do you carry?
Thank you to the organizers for doing the real work, for the opportunity to witness and support, and for believing art and flowers can nourish movements like this.
Immense gratitude for the floral support from Flowers By MJ.
This event was funded in part by the Awesome Foundation.
Visit www.SaveChinatownDC.org to learn more.
Photos provided by Save Chinatown DC
May 16, 2021
Let Ivy City Bloom
Ivy City
Kendall St NE between Okie and Galludet Streets
Washington, D.C.
I partnered with the ANC Commissioner Sebrena Rhodes, community organizing nonprofit Empower DC, and floral design studio Sweet Root Village to create a pop-up park in Ivy City as a peaceful protest to reclaim the Crummell School grounds and prototype for a flourishing public green space.
The pop-up park included over 3,000 flower stems and over 1,300 sq ft of sod within a neighborhood block party.
A few weeks after our community gathering, in a culmination of more than 40 years of effort -- Mayor Bowser announced she would include $20 million in her budget to restore the Crummell School into a community center.
Photos by Eric Lee
Ivy City
Kendall St NE between Okie and Galludet Streets
Washington, D.C.
I partnered with the ANC Commissioner Sebrena Rhodes, community organizing nonprofit Empower DC, and floral design studio Sweet Root Village to create a pop-up park in Ivy City as a peaceful protest to reclaim the Crummell School grounds and prototype for a flourishing public green space.
The pop-up park included over 3,000 flower stems and over 1,300 sq ft of sod within a neighborhood block party.
A few weeks after our community gathering, in a culmination of more than 40 years of effort -- Mayor Bowser announced she would include $20 million in her budget to restore the Crummell School into a community center.
Photos by Eric Lee
Flowerhands is a natural nail dye workshop based in the traditional practices of Korean women dyeing their nails using the petals and leaves of the rose balsam (impatiens balsamina) flower.
This multi/intergenerational workshop is meant to cultivate a space that invites others to share their practices of self and community care with one another, rooted in my own memories of care embodied, delving into gestures of adornment as the place of collective liberation.
The origin of the bongseonhwa flowers and seeds are from the garden my mother and I tended during the height of the pandemic quarantine and grief. Participants were given a how-to riso print zine and seeds. The core of Flowerhands is for it to always be free for anyone willing to participate.
Connect with me + I will mail seeds to you.
This multi/intergenerational workshop is meant to cultivate a space that invites others to share their practices of self and community care with one another, rooted in my own memories of care embodied, delving into gestures of adornment as the place of collective liberation.
The origin of the bongseonhwa flowers and seeds are from the garden my mother and I tended during the height of the pandemic quarantine and grief. Participants were given a how-to riso print zine and seeds. The core of Flowerhands is for it to always be free for anyone willing to participate.
Connect with me + I will mail seeds to you.