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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art acknowledges it resides on the ancestral territory of the Osage, Kaw, and Otoe-Missouria, among other tribal nations forcibly moved to the region such as the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) nations. We recognize and support the continued vibrancy of Native communities and cultures today who continue to thrive, as well as the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations. We are compelled to serve and advocate for these communities in accordance with our public mission.

Kemper Museum acknowledges and respects the diversity of Native people connected to this land today. Many recognize the land and all beings who live within it as relatives. We acknowledge the earth we inhabit, the waters of the Blue River, the Kansas River, the Missouri River, and the plants, animals, and people supported by them. 

We acknowledge our responsibility to be good caretakers of the land we occupy. 

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Worlds Otherwise Hidden features the work of three international artists who interpret the complexities—both beautiful and challenging—of cultures shaped by migration, immigration, displacement, and exile. Nevin Aladağ (b. 1972), Kimsooja (b. 1957), and Nari Ward (b. 1963) combine and transmute specific objects, designs, and symbols from divergent cultural contexts in their video and sculptural installations. They explore issues of fractured geography, creating new space for dialogue and revealing worlds otherwise hidden.

Born in Turkey and based in Berlin, Nevin Aladağ employs practicable objects such as carpets, wire, and instruments in her two- and three-dimensional works and video installations that engage purposefully with meditations on cultural heritage and identity. She harmonizes patterns, materials, and sounds of varying origins through symmetry, rhythm, and symbiotic balance to reveal an underlying connectedness between individual and collective histories.

Korean-born, New York–based artist Kimsooja synchronizes public and private identity and experience as she brings attention to the potency of everyday objects and actions, and the memory and narrative therein. Using designs, icons, and colors from all of the world’s national flags, without hierarchy or political prejudice, Kimsooja’s installation To Breathe—Zone of Nowhere creates a visual canopy where national differences exist on an equal plane. 

Jamaican-born Nari Ward employs found objects, which imbue his works with a tactile and visceral relationship to both history and the real world. His sculpture and video works in this exhibition reveal messages and meaning through recurring forms that change over time and in different geographic locations. Ward’s references include urban space, performance and the body, the dynamics of power and politics, ideas of migration and movement, and vernacular traditions in his native Jamaica and where he lives and works in New York.

Worlds Otherwise Hidden is organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Erin Dziedzic, director of curatorial affairs, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri. The exhibition is presented as a prelude project providing a broader trajectory and thematic investigation of artists featured in Open Spaces: A Kansas City Art Experience, taking place August 25–October 28, 2018.

This exhibition has been generously supported by the R. Crosby Kemper Jr. Exhibition Fund, UMB Bank, n.a. Trustee.

Sustaining Sponsors:
 The Copaken Family Fund
 Sharon and John Hoffman

from the exhibition Worlds Otherwise Hidden, May 17–September 2, 2018 
 ​Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
 Photo: E.G. Schempf, 2018.

Kimsooja - To Breathe–Zone of Nowhere, 2017
 installation consisting of 30 nylon flags, 243 x 152 cm each.
 Courtesy of Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth and Kimsooja Studio. © Kimsooja.

from the exhibition Worlds Otherwise Hidden, May 17–September 2, 2018 
 ​Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
 Photo: E.G. Schempf, 2018.

Kimsooja - To Breathe–Zone of Nowhere, 2017
 installation consisting of 30 nylon flags, 243 x 152 cm each.
 Courtesy of Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth and Kimsooja Studio. © Kimsooja.

Nari Ward
 Mango Tourist, 2011 
 foam, battery canisters, Sprague Electric Company resistors and capacitors mango pits, 3 figures, each approximately 120 inches in height, In collaboration with MASS MoCa, North Adams, Massachusetts. 
 and
  We the People, 2011 
 shoelaces, 96 x 324 inches 
 In collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia
 Collection of the Speed Art Museum, Gift of the Speed Contemporary, 2016.1 
 © and Courtesy the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York, and Hong Kong. 

Nari Ward
 Sweater, 2011 
 single-channel video, color, sound, 4 minutes, 56 seconds 
 In collaboration with MASS MoCa, North Adams, Massachusetts 
 © and Courtesy the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York, and Hong Kong. 

Exhibition Preview

Worlds Otherwise Hidden

Installation view
 Nevin Aladağ
 works from the Social Fabric series, 2017

Worlds Otherwise Hidden, May 17–September 2, 2018 
 ​Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
 Photo: E.G. Schempf, 2018.