ARTIST STATEMENT
A small event in everyday life can mirror larger social and political structures. My practice reinterprets minor histories, memories, and personal anecdotes to stage absurd interventions that unsettle ingrained perceptions and disrupt social expectations. I collect and craft stories that blur the lines between fiction and reality, layered with metaphor, satire, and humor, to explore moments that seem incomprehensible. Across diverse topics, my work continually returns to questions of belief systems, power dynamics, and the construction of cultural, gendered, and social identities. Migration has been a formative part of my life, shaping how I observe and navigate the world. Having moved frequently in both childhood and adulthood, I became attuned to the nuances of adaptation: decoding gestures, absorbing behaviors, and mimicking cultural cues to assimilate. This process cultivated my interest in how ideological beliefs and worldviews are shaped. My work examines how identities are performed and how we come to define ourselves and relate to others. Grounded in the present yet speculative in tone, my projects draw from animation, theater, documentary, and stand-up comedy. I see each work as an opportunity to examine the poetic and political potential, reflecting on how we live, what we believe, and what lies beneath the surface of ordinary life.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Yue Nakayama is an interdisciplinary artist working across video, performance, and installation to explore belief systems, societal rituals, and structures of power. Grounded in narrative and absurdity, her practice reimagines minor histories, personal anecdotes, and fragmented memories as sites of critical play. By weaving together humor and criticality, she creates uncanny worlds that subvert cultural norms and destabilize fixed identities, particularly around race, gender, society, and cultural inheritance. Her work has been exhibited and screened at the ICA Philadelphia, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Visual Art Center at UT Austin, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, DiverseWorks, White Columns, and international film festivals such as AVIFF (Prix Coup de Coeur), Onion City, and Athens International Film Festival (Programmer’s Award). Nakayama has received fellowships and awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Dallas Museum of Art, and the Houston Center for Photography (Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship). She has participated in residencies such as Skowhegan, the Core Program, Lighthouse Works, Vermont Studio Center, and Ox-Bow. Her work has been featured in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Glasstire, and Peripheral Visions.
© Yue Nakayama