Friday, March 30, 2012
Mandala Flea Market Mutants: Pop Protocol and the Seven Transformations of Good-luck National Defense Cats

Solo exhibition of artist Yoko Inoue: "Mandala Flea Market Mutants: Pop Protocol and the Seven Transformations of Good-luck National Defense Cats"

I attempt to poetically elucidate the relationships between objects and humans in the context of the intricately interdependent, contemporary, multi-cultural environment. I consider the confluence of different cultures in the market place, paying attention to such aspect as product routes, specific cultural derivations of products, and the influence of globalization and free trade on traditional culture. In my installation art, I use the ceramic medium, because of its cultural universality, to seek ways of linking contemporary objects to their history, lost cultural origins and displaced meanings. 
Mandala Flea Market Mutants: Pop Protocol and the Seven Transformations of Good-luck National Defense Cats takes the form of a multi-disciplinary installation that affects and aestheticize the appearances and mechanics of a marketplace, materially consisting of excessive accumulations of banal objects, commoditized sacred figures or good luck icons that I individually hand cast in porcelain and stoneware and manipulate. 
This project is derived from my research on the historical and cultural implications of the ubiquitous flea markets in the compound of To-ji temple and Kitano shrine in Kyoto, that are held on specific days for receiving blessings or special divine favors from particular deities. Here, within the confluence of the sacred and profane, people practice the rituals of commerce and barter with deities. I explore the hidden commonality, whether a mystic belief, supernatural power or a superstition, that exists between traditional cultural iconography and that of pop and subculture in Japan. I question what remains within an object that makes it possible for us to recognize ourselves in it and reclaim it as part of our own identity or in a broader sense, our cultural identity. 

Inoue is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores the commoditization of cultural values and assimilation and identity issues in the form of installation and public intervention performance art. Originally from Kyoto, Japan, Inoue earned an MFA from Hunter College. Her work has been shown at Brooklyn Museum, Sculpture Center, Rubin Museum, Momenta Art and Art in General in New York and at other international and national venues. She has received Guggenheim Fellowship, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, NYFA Fellowship in Sculpture and Cross Disciplinary/Performative Work, Tides Foundation Lambent Fellowship, Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, Franklin Furnace Fund, GAPS 9-11 Fund from LMCC and other grants. Most recently she received the Anonymous Was A Woman Award. Residencies include Skowhegan, LMCC Workspace, Smack Mellon, .ekwc in The Netherlands, Civitella Ranieri in Italy and Sacatar Foundation in Brazil. Inoue is awarded the LMCC Paris Residency at Cité Internationale des Arts from May to October, 2012.


To to Smack Mellon Gallery for more information
Link: http://smackmellon.org/
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Thursday, March 1, 2012
Contemporary Japanese Art: Finding its Voice in Japan & Abroad

Panel Discussion: “Contemporary Japanese Art: Finding its Voice in Japan and Abroad”

A panel discussion will focus on Japanese Contemporary Art through a conversation with a top art critic, museum curator, artist and art dealer, all specializing in Japanese art today. The panel will address how recent historical events, a pervasive pop culture and a volatile economy, along with other aspects of the current social and economic landscape, may influence how fine art is made and marketed in Japan today. 

Panelists: Richard Vine (Art in America), Allison Tolman (Tolman Collection), Nao Matsumoto(Artist), Miwako Tezuka (Asia Society) 
Moderator: Susan Eisner Eley (Susan Eley Fine Art) 

Free to participate 
Seats are limited, so please RSVP at info@newcityartfair.com


For more information go to www.susaneleyfineart.com
Kentaro Hiramatsu
Fumiko Toda
















Ayakoh Furukawa
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Community Oral History: "From Street Fair to Medical Home: The Charles B. Wang Community Health Center

Date: March 1, 2012
Location MoCA, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013
Time: 630PM
Open to public. Please RSVP to programs@mocanyc.org

The Chinatown Health Clinic, now the CBWCHC, started around the same time as Basement Workshop where AAAC began. Both organizations shared shared volunteers at 22 Catherine St where Basement Workshop was on the 3rd floor and the Health Clinic was on the 2ed floor. Thats when the Chinatown Street Fair* took place in 1973 and I designed the poster for this ground breaking event that organized and awakened so many youth of that era.  This poster I recently re-discovered and gave to Regina for CBWCHC's collection of the documents that mark the beginnings of their history. A picture of it is in the book on one of the Street Fair stalls we built on Mott St.  Many memories will be shared at MoCA at the Health Center’s talk on their new book recounting the story of building this important community organization - on March 1. 
 
*Note: The first street fair was in 1971 at Father Tang's church on Henry Street focused more on health, the second one in 73' featured things other than health sparking both social and political awakening of the Asian American Movement.  


For more information, please go to MOCA's website.

Bob Lee and Regina Lee holding a poster Bob made for the Chinatown Street Fair in 1971.

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Saturday, February 25, 2012
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Performance artist Li Ning turns his life into art in this epic work of experimental documentary. For five grueling years, Li documents his struggle to achieve success as an avant-garde artist while contending with the pressures of modern life in China. He is caught between two families: his wife, son and mother, whom he can barely support; and his enthusiastic but disorganized guerilla dance troupe. Li’s chaotic life becomes inseparable from the act of taping it, as if his experiences can only make sense on screen. Tape shatters documentary conventions, utilizing a variety of approaches, including guerilla documentary, experimental street video, even CGI. The film captures a decade’s worth of artistic aspirations and failures, while breaking new ground in individual expression in China.
Synopsis courtesy of dGenerate Films.

Official Selection, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Official Selection, Beijing Independent Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection, MoMA Documentary Fortnight

“A riveting portrait of an artist’s attempts at expression and conflicts with societal norms.”
– Museum of Modern Art

Tickets are $10 general admission and are available for purchase at the box office 30 minutes prior to each screening or anytime on Exit Art's website HERE

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We had so much fun during the parade! Happy Lunar New Year to everyone! We look forward to next year's parade. We need more people to join us! Trust us, its really fun!


Ummi and Nana as Accidental Chinese Hipsters wannabes with their big happy Asian face mask holding the AAAC banner on Division Street.



Karen in her mahjong costume with a bird on her head.

 CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THE PARADE!
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Thursday, February 23, 2012
World's Largest Library of Korean Art Books opens in Times Square

Thousands of Books and Magazines on Korean Art and Culture are Available for Free Loan to All Members of the Public

The Korean Art Society owns the world's largest collection of English-language books on Korean art. The entire collection is now displayed at 400 West 43rd Street, in Times Square. Thousands of publications are available for you to borrow, including many books that are so rare that they are almost impossible to find. All of the publications are arranged by subject, so it is very easy to find material on a wide range of Korean art subjects. The collection includes every Korean art auction catalog ever published, along with all of the auction results. This library is open to the public as part of our effort to promote Korean art, and so that everyone can enjoy the results of their ongoing international search for publications on Korean art and culture.

For more info, go to www.koreanartsociety.org

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Monday, January 23, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Private Danny Chen news coverage

  • January 14, 2012
  • 1
Dear Artists and Friends,

Each of the coverage below reflects a different way each media outlet has chosen to make this story of an Asian American soldier public.  A change is underway in how much audiences are encouraged to sympathize with Asian people, their faces, their stories, even their community.  Perhaps the last story of its kind was over twenty years ago when the film Who Killed Vincent Chin by Christine Choy came out, the impact generated a new generation determined to defend and advocate for Asian Americans and their communities. 

AAAC invites you to look closely at this story as it unfolds in the media.  Where will it lead and what will it mean for the next generation of Americans - Asian Pacific Americans, Americans of every background - a multicultural diverse multitude.  AAAC invites artists to create art work on any facet of this, however you view this in relation to the art you do.  For those who do figurative work, we invite you to do portraits of Danny Chen, however you conceive of what portraiture is. 

AAAC will make a separate place on its blog for this subject so that those interested in writing on this subject can be posted and a useful dialogue can ensue. AAAC will appreciate particularly those written pieces or comments on the human implications, the cultural side of this story.  Here is a young person who does not fit the Model Minority Myth.  It is a chance to sketch in for Americans who we really are and undo some at least of all that separates us.  The media too is also part of this subject, open to praise as well as critique.

AAAC has expanded its online capacity and will do what is possible for the public to see and contemplate what is created.  It is too early at this point to talk of exhibition sites and dates, collaborations or art proposals.  That will have to come in time.  We are interested in those artists who want to get together, even if it has to be only for those in the NYC area, or a conference call to bring together voices over a broader geographic area. This is a moment for all artists, of every background, for all of us to be seen in a new light. There is much to talk about culturally, politically, artistically.  We may be able to intro those interested who live in the same city so conversations can start elsewhere. 

The military culture that our civic life in the USA is so depended on is also not exempt from a critical cultural perspective, how it ties into who we are as people. 

Asian Americans have a role in what this land will become.  When I heard Danny's mom tremble as she spoke, she filled the silence in the room at CCBA with what was nearly tangible. Then later I saw how media sought to avoid or capture this. It was clear then, Art and Artists have something to say.  

I look forward to hearing from you.

 
Bob

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Saturday, January 7, 2012
Rinku Sen Workshop


Interactive Organizers Workshop led by Rinku Sen, Executive Director of the Applied Research Center, focused on developing a racial justice framework and building multiracial alliances within the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

On December 14th. A long awaited, major event supported by PoC was held at the Spokes Council and billed as a special training event to provide OWS activists with a racial justice lens as a frame for organizing in the future. This was the key speaker and organizer of the event, Rinku Sen, Executive Director of the Applied Research Center, focused on developing a racial justice framework and building multiracial alliances within the Occupy Wall Street movement. There were over 400 people in attendance. She and her partner presented very concise ideas and the room broke up a couple of times into small discussion groups.

This workshop will probably be repeated, because it is very much needed to expand on the ideas that wee presented. Currently, the issues of the role of people of color and the decades of experience that they have as communities that have been exploited has yet to evolve the role that they need to play in OWS. Clearly, 99% indicates the major message that OWS has succeeded in getting the message across about economic inequality, but it does not reflect the racial question nor the tradition of the superiority of white civilization. The functioning mechanisms of OWS are deeply involved in this question so that it can reflect a new vision of people of color, their culture, and their place in American society.



Audience members at Rinku Sen workshop. Held at the Winston Unity Hall at 23rd St.


Enthusiastic audience members during the workshop.


Questions about Organizers Workshop
Nayantara Sen, Associate Trainer: senn@arc.org
POCcupy Your Block: poccupyyourblock@gmail.com

More Information
Rinku Sen & OWS visit http://colorlines.com/occupy and http://rinkusen.com/
Applied Research Center visit www.arc.org and www.colorlines.com
Occupy Your Block visit www.occupyyourblock.org
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Duarte Park’s Japanese drummers December 17th. On this day, OWS attempted to occupy Duarte Park on Canal St, between 6th and 7th Ave. It was an amazing celebration of the three-month anniversary of this incredible global movement. Right near Canal St was a group of Japanese drummers, which appeared to be related to Buddhist tradition.


This property is owned by Trinity Church and they have made an agreement with LMCC to allow certain cultural activities to take place there when the weather is cooperative. Although the church says that it is supportive of raising awareness of issues that are affecting the quality of lives and the efforts of OWS, it was not able to support OWS by allowing demonstrators to use the land. Neither Trinity Church nor LMCC would return our calls. During the celebration to mark this anniversary and to indicate how important the occupation of land is to OWS, people started to climb over the fence and even had a hand-made ladder to do so. Police were standing on a truck and videotaped everybody. When they started to arrest people, only a few people stayed to be arrested, including a cardinal, two ministers, and an internationally known peace activist.
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Monday, January 2, 2012
March and Vigil for Danny Chen

Banner that we created with the support of OWS. This march started on 143 Chambers St. The whole family was standing in front of an army recruiting facility, each holding a sign, with Danny’s mother holding his picture. It was extremely crowded and the organizers tried to keep everybody off the street and on the sidewalk, with a path for pedestrians. There were a lot of reporters and cameras.

(If you don't know what happened to Danny Chen, click here)

As the march began, the organizers had the family at the front of the march with all of us following them. The media and the organizers tried to create room for the family to start the march and proceed. At the same time, there was a lot of documentation by photographers and video recorders.
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Art Cart and Artists Updates

China Marks is an artist that AAAC has both exhibited and featured on our website. She is significantly influenced by Asian styles and has been chosen by a program called Art Cart, a program of Teachers College, Columbia University, connects aging professional visual artists with teams of graduate fellows to undertake the preparation and preservation of their creative work.  China is one among seven or eight artists this year in this program.

Joan Jeffri initiated this program and has been a long time art advocate, gathering data from all over, to create studies that get funders to focus in on what they need to do.


In September, a reception was held in honor of Keung Szeto, who passed away recently. Originally from Taiwan, he has been a highly successful photo-realist painter in New York for many years. An extensive slideshow documenting his life, family, and friends, and many of his artworks was presented here.

Here, we are only showing two images—a couple of portraits, though many have been taken over his lifetime which speak volumes of his accomplishments and character.


Faith Ringgold and her manager, Grace Yun, at the opening reception of the Metropolitan Museum on September 9th. She was exhibited at an exhibition at the center called “Ancestors” which brought together Asian and African Americans, many of whom were biracial. The exhibition brought together historical facts about the relationship between these two races in the US. She has a foundation working with young children to give them the opportunity to create piece-quilts. Managed by Grace Yun, this organization is called “Interracial Collaboration.”


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The last time that "Occupy Wall Street With Peace" banner was held, on December 3rd. Every Saturday at 2:00 for about five to six weeks, this banner was a site for the development of an Asian presence at Zucotti Park. This was the last time the banner was present there. The woman in the wheelchair is from West Virginia and she traveled to New York City to visit her friend (in blue). She sang me two Irish songs—which were so lovely and truly showed how spontaneous she was—one of her songs was both very funny and highly political. She was quite a woman.  Keeping the banner there has enabled me to meet so many amazing people. It has been quite an experience and also a privilege. 


General Assembly held in Zuccotti park on December 1st. This is an example of the general assembly, usually held in the park. Some meetings have better attendance than others.


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