What follows are words I wrote while I recalled the associations I felt when viewing Yifan Li’s work at Goldfinch Gallery on November 10th. Intrigued by the artist’s understanding of the “afflictions of time” and her marks’ engagement with yearning and memory, I responded to the works over a series of three months. Each time I sat down to write I attempted to remember my initial visceral reactions, while also allowing free-association to guide the ekphrastic poems.
…

Tuesday 11/26
Helen, 2024
Koolaid lithography
I forget the fixative
Dogs bark at the cars passing
Mouths agape at the indecency
They too are mountains, with
Offensive cliffs in a cold shrouded landscape.
off in the background, a racket held high
That *****What a racket!
She’s far off, high on the heels
Gaining speed as days draw closer to
The play at hand.
A beautiful mind we scrape at the window
I’m sorry I let you down.
You weren’t so far away, but it felt
Ships pass in the night, but more so
Spent rattletraps, their end trails are dipped paints
Fuel Engines that shouldn’t meet the city’s emission thresholds.
trying to cater to that moment again
where the Sun shown
just write on the upper right corner of you
perfect in eyes
Apple of my
a face every mother would love.
.

Monday, 1/6
Eros I
As I glean past on my fuji
Each reflective
smears of light, a bright cross in periphery.
thankful for paths, beaten and untread
Where we might cross one another
Racing further and further home, to some ideal
To some safety after so much joy and freedom
a childhood summer day without my father’s anger.
But—I am catching up to you!
You’re far off in the distance,
A promise of understanding, I knew once
Once knew
I know we’ll get together soon
hang out even
Hold hands
When we’re both free.
.

Sunday, 1/5
Eros II A.
See her escape under the thicket
Tufts of blush fur
bulge out around bars of chain-linked fence,
A hare has made it across the boundary line!
It’s been days since a rabbit was run over on Eros Lane.
Eros II B.
Pulp pushes, wisps of light
I remember it pink and red, hot from your hand,
A prominence left by tread marks over raw skin.
Trying to let the badness out
Matriarchs say that’s what pain was
I hope for a yellowing, acid green even
Rejoice at neon ponds below the screen.
* * *
Yifan Li’s exhibition The Visage of Time was on view at Goldfinch Gallery in Chicago from November 10 – December 21, 2024.

About the author: Joan Roach (he/they) is a Chicago-based educator, curator, arts writer, and poet. They focus on sculptural, textual, and performance-based art that is concerned with everyday material reality. He works full-time as an Art History & Diverse Learning Teacher for Chicago High School for the Arts. They write for their friends sometimes & will publish “Nothing Special,” their first book of poetry and photography, in 2025.