July 2026
Exhibition
@ SRC
Weeks of Orchids
An exhibition by bex ya yolk
Weeks of Orchids is a solo exhibition by bex ya yolk explorin artificial womb research and queer reproductive sociology through speculative works in sculpture and artists’ books.
In a country coping with the US Supreme Court’s traumatic overturning of the protectio of safe abortion and reproductive health care — we are forced to theorize how the confiscating of personal autonomies and human rights will manipulate a collective understanding of the maternal* and the futurity of human gestation.
This exhibition is accompanied by the release of ‘How to Be an Abortio Companion’— a zine written, edited, and compiled by bex ya yolk and designed/published by Secret Riso Club, as a recipient of the SRC Political Zine Micro Grant.
In a country coping with the US Supreme Court’s traumatic overturning of the protectio of safe abortion and reproductive health care — we are forced to theorize how the confiscating of personal autonomies and human rights will manipulate a collective understanding of the maternal* and the futurity of human gestation.
This exhibition is accompanied by the release of ‘How to Be an Abortio Companion’— a zine written, edited, and compiled by bex ya yolk and designed/published by Secret Riso Club, as a recipient of the SRC Political Zine Micro Grant.
*The Maternal (as defined in
Re-Assembling Motherhood(s): On Radical Care and Collective Art as Feminist Practices) is not exclusive to a physical or fixed identity or category but instead is a practice in dedication, nurturance, modalities of protection, and ultimately a state of mind giving way to distinctive discipline of care or applying a care ethic.
︎︎︎ Opening June 25
︎︎︎ Closing August 06
Re-Assembling Motherhood(s): On Radical Care and Collective Art as Feminist Practices) is not exclusive to a physical or fixed identity or category but instead is a practice in dedication, nurturance, modalities of protection, and ultimately a state of mind giving way to distinctive discipline of care or applying a care ethic.
︎︎︎ Opening June 25
︎︎︎ Closing August 06
Photos by SRC ©
bex ya yolk (they/them) is a visual artist, designer, educator, and abortion doula based in Chicago, IL. yolk received a BFA in Graphic Design from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a concentration in Book Arts as a full merit scholar. yolk is the founder of THUNGRY— a publishing initiative and artists’ book bindery complicating traditional ways of Book building and semantics through experimentation + queering praxis. yolk utilizes the confines of the Artists' Book, fundamental principles in design, and exploratory methodologies in sculpture to disrupt what we’ve come to understand qualifies a Book.
With a generative, multi-year, research practice rooted in reproductive rights, histories, and design— yolk focuses on the philosophy of ‘the maternal’, as a theology, a practice, a logic to live by. Exploring mothering as a non-exclusive physical fixed category or identity but instead as a representation of commitment and dedication to nurturance, protection, support, and care. As socio-political landscapes evolve in regards to what is acceptable, legal, and safe for AFAB and queer people, yolk interrogates and boldly addresses what could come of our collective futurity. Through sculptural practices, independent publishing, and the Book as an art object, yolk mines sub genres of ‘the maternal complex’ such as: care work, reproductive justice + design, health care disparities in the U.S, queer histories, and container technologies making visible the intersectionalities between the Book in form and the bodies this research pertains.
www.bexyayolk.com / @bx_yayolk + @_thungry