Skype Sweater is a seminal early installation by Anicka Yi, first shown in a two-person exhibition ‘Loveless Marriages’ at 179 Canal (with Josh Kline). Yi has always sought to explore effects of passage and transformation, most clearly evinced by her use of bacteria and interest in contagions. The root of these ideas has always existed close to home, within the body, in the stomach. The metabolic system is a constant process of transformation – and a rich metaphor. Skype Sweater was the first clear indication of Yi’s enduring fascination. The most obvious reference to digestion is, of course, the literal cow stomach in hair gel inside the transparent Longchamp bag. But the stomach is also suggested in the military parachute, knotted into the illusion of undulating chambers. What unfolds through Yi’s visually disparate elements is a larger central narrative, where greater implications take form: her interest in human trafficking, more specifically, for this piece, that of Sister Ping and her notorious smuggling of Fujianese immigrants into New York’s Chinatown in the 80s and 90s. The parachute not only serves as a means of passage, but also a metaphor for imperialism, forced displacement, and culture clashes.
