Cry Joy Park – Into the Looking Glass, from Jennifer Wen Ma’s current body of work, looks at notions of utopia and dystopia from multiple perspectives and examines the value systems that humans create when building civilizations. These systems are often composed of opposing forces in need of reconciliation and balance. This site-specific installation creates multiple layers of interior and exterior spaces through vertically suspended black and white paper gardens. The exterior garden wall is black and austere, while the white interior garden is light and airy, seemingly soft and inviting. However, the interior is not physically accessible. The visitor can only look through small openings in the black garden walls. Furthermore, these limited access points are fixed with wide angle lenses, therefore the view is distorted.

In the Cry Joy Park series, contrasting black and white paper gardens invite the audience into an imagined utopian and dystopian landscape to explore various issues of social inequality, beneath the umbrella of environmental justice.* Into the Looking Glass at Redwood City Art Kiosk, highlights the issue of access and division created by the tech boom.

*Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.