Artist Conversation and Sound Bath

Join us for an afternoon with "I split the ground, so it would not close over me" artist Kelley Finley and QiKi Club.

Kelley Finley will be in conversation with local independent curator Samantha Hiura to talk about the importance of storytelling and folktales in her work in the exhibition.

The program will be followed by a sound bath led by QiKi Club. QiKi Club facilitators will be creating a container for movement, mindfulness, and sound healing. Movements and practices that will be shared are rooted in East Asian Medicine and diasporic expression, providing tools for self-awareness and our relationship to earth and elements.

Please bring a yoga mat, blanket, and other items to feel comfortable for the sound bath.

About the Participants

Kelley Finley is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is autoethnographic, primarily working in sculpture, textiles, and performance. Finley received her MFA from California College of the Arts and a BFA in Sculpture and a B.S. in Art Education from Kutztown University. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Hong Kong and Italy, and across the US. Recently, she was an Artist in Residence at Recology, SF, and participated in Edge on the Square’s Annual Contemporary Art Event.

Samantha (Sam) Hiura is an interdisciplinary curator, writer, and arts worker whose practice explores contemporary art as a site of unsettling, unmaking, and critical inquiry. Grounded in queer and BIPOC criticism, her work engages questions of identity, power, and representation, with particular attention to Asian American and Pacific Islander perspectives. Her research interests include abjection, poetics, and memory across moving image, sound, installation, and photography.

Hiura has held curatorial positions at the Institute for Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF) and California College of the Arts’ PLAySPACE Initiative, and her writing has appeared in publications including Variable West, Sightlines, and KQED. At ICA SF, she initiated and directed the CCA Student Series, curating seven exhibition cycles featuring MFA Fine Arts students. She holds a BA in Humanities and Art History with departmental honors from Seattle University, as well as an MA in Curatorial Practice and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts.

QiKi Club (pronounced “chee-kee” club) is a collective of queer asian healers, artists, and organizers rooted in care, resistance, and community power in the East Bay. Their mission is to create an expansive space where Asian medicine, holistic healing, community, culture, education, and rest are deeply resourced and accessible. They envision a place where community builders, practitioners, and organizers come together to learn, rest, and be nourished—–so they can sustain their well-being and continue serving their communities with resilience and care.