Black Threads from Meng Chiao / Justine Kurland, John Yau

In a true collaboration, Justine Kurland and John Yau shared photographs and poems throughout the making of Black Threads from Meng Chiao, each reacting to the work of the other many times over. The result is a revelation for each: Kurland's intimate interior black-and-white images offer a new side of an artist known for large-format color pictures of landscapes both peopled and not; Yau's spare, precise language is given room to reveal multiple layers of meaning over the three distinct formal sections that comprise the title poem. A friendship between these two was born several years ago after Yau - also a renowned critic - wrote about Kurland's photographs, but an artistic partnership wasn't contemplated until they recently found themselves in similar mental and emotional situations born of quite different logistical circumstances. Yau was housebound while recuperating from knee and neck surgeries, and Kurland was off the road (her accustomed place of working), caring for her son in