Sean Morrissey and Loring Taoka Present Exhibitions as Part of the Terrain Biennial in Chicago

 

Revisiting icons and symbols as carriers of meaning, Loring Taoka’s I heart void reimagines the 🕳 (literal/figurative hole, black hole, etc.) emoji as a heart. This new interpretation looks at the void as a space for endless possibilities, as something to not only stare into, but a thing to love. The heart void pairs fearfulness and fearlessness together in an emotive experience; opposing or complex feelings can and do exist simultaneously, and that’s alright. It’s okay to be afraid and excited and nervous and worried and happy and sad. Give yourself permission. 

 

 

Below the window: Sean P. Morrissey’s Flag Field #01 arranges more than 1200 marking flags into a grid where WELCOME emerges but remains only partly legible. The word shifts in and out of clarity, echoing suburban signs that signal both hospitality and boundaries, and reflecting the instability of identity and belonging in these spaces. Multiplied into a field, the flags recall the sameness of suburban housing developments, where individuality exists only within predetermined limits. The attempt to write WELCOME interrupts this order, suggesting difference within repetition. The installation imprints a temporary geometry that questions how individuality survives within systems built for uniformity.