Flushing - RICE

I got off 7 train and arrived Flushing without any inkling of what I was about to see... This scene of 'little Asia' in Flushing brought so many memories back in Korea. Busy streets, street food and carts, kitsch music and buses.

Re-presenting, re-contextualizing the 'culture's have been vital in contemporary art making within the context of globalization, identity diaspora. Well, here... I wondered if any of that really mattered. This thick aroma of 'culture' that cannot ever be reproduced was enough for me as a justification in its existence.

Artforum article describes Jung Hee Choi's performance RICE like this:

A hypnotic projection of rotating mandalic forms radiated out from Zazeela’s magenta color field like silent fireworks, while the sound of Choi tracing a circle around the top of an overturned cooking pot with a rice paddle created a single repeating tone that resonated deep in the solar plexus. - Artforum

I picked up a reserved ticket at the Guggenheim box office, went up to the 4th floor... and there was a room with mystic magenta lighting and projection of 'rice,' hypnotic series of radiance. A few cushions were spread out around the room... the audience was asked to take off the shoes and wait for the performance in silence. Much of anticipation built up... because it seemed something of the other, oriental and mystical... you know.

Then the artist came to the stage in a black dress, and started to trace a circle on a top of cooking pot. I started to become a lot more aware of a sound of friction. The audience was quiet - some seemed to be meditating, some fell asleep. It just went on like that for over an hour. She finished and sat right next to her mentor in the audience. No direction or access to what it is that was going on -

I left the performance with a perplexed train of thought. Is it my shortcoming in understanding the performance and sound piece? But there was no accessibility for me to engage, I felt frustrated if not looked down upon for still 'not getting' it. To me, the piece was perhaps beautiful, but an isolated ritual that required a pretentious concentration/meditation from the audience to exude this aura of transcendent experience.

Packing 2000 Trophies

 

Jean Shin's work has intrigued me. The artist explores the 'collective memories' and people's commonality through her extensive collection of discarded objects. These objects are collected/donated from various communities (i.e. Asian American society, MoMA staff, veterans, etc.). Her ways of redeeming the leftovers are labor-intensive and the visual transformation of collected objects is formally beautiful.

My work speaks of the optimism inherent in giving new form to life’s leftovers. In my sculptures and large-scale installations, I seek to recall an object’s past, as well as suggest its greater connection to our collective memories, desires and failures.

My inventory of everyday materials includes broken umbrellas, donated clothing, losing lottery tickets, emptied wine bottles and old computer keycaps. These humble remnants, often forgotten and no longer “useful”, retain the traces of their former lives. After accumulating and deconstructing hundreds—sometimes even thousands—of these cast-offs, I generate a seemingly homogenous construction that in turn emphasizes the individuality and variety among apparently indistinct objects. As the uniformity of the collection falls away, the accumulation of ephemera reveals new meanings and associations.

Jean Shin

 Chemical Balance II, 2005

Penumbra, 2003

It is now my 2nd week working at Jean Shin's studio. I walk on Classon Ave., take G train to Smith-9th Street, and get on to 77 bus to the Red Hook area in Brooklyn. And there is her studio on Conover Street, about an hour commute from where I am.

Her current project Everyday Monument is specifically for her upcoming solo show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  She gathered about 2000 trophies through donation from different communities, and altered the figurines into American heroes of labor. They are quite patriotic and kitsch, yielding much amusement in encountering each figure. Countless hours of labor have been put in these trophies - Everyday Monument. I appreciate this sense of celebration and commemoration of everyday labor.

Past 3 days, the studio assistants have been packing trophies after trophies.

Taping boxes, wrapping trophies, cutting foam support, taping boxes again... Curator from MoMA stopped by the artist's studio tonight, and it was cool to listen their conversation about the project in its concept and process.

Cannot wait to see its final installation of two thousand trophies!!!

Packing will continue next week...

Tomorrow will be my catching up day with errands, school work, and KOREAN FOOD in Flushing with my friend!

Also I will be viewing Jung Hee Choi's performance Rice at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Jung Hee Choi, a disciple of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, will perform solo in a setting of her acclaimed video sound installation RICE. This performance will take place within the space of Young and Zazeela’s Dream House, a continuous electronic sound environment in luminous fields of colored light currently installed in the museum as part of The Third Mind. 

Happy Studio, Happy Seeing

I spend about 3 hours/day in the train/bus here. It's quite refreshing to have a train slip out of a tunnel to breathe in the cold air. On my way to a friend's place in the Park Slope, I heard a young violinist's music on F train. 

Well! Indeed Happy Studio!

The Studio Workspace is located on West 39th street, close by The New York Times and the Port Authority. I was able to get off work a bit early to go to studio again last night.

Masumi (last quarter resident) left me a thoughtful postcard and some Japanese goodies.

I am starting to think about a project/performance I could commit this quarter in the space...

space

shredding

reconstruction

private

blankets

.

.

.

          

Some remnants of the past residents - Yi-Shin and Masumi

The studio is a part of Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts, and there is efa project space on the 2nd floor. Current show is called Post Memory: A collection of Makeshift Monuments, curated by Yaelle Amir. The show explores alternative ways in memorializing a mediated history. Multiple visual and spacial outcomes of remembrance and commemoration speaks of people and events that have faded from "collective consciousness." There I saw Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry's installation The Evidence of Things Not Seen (2008), which was exhibited in Atlanta at Kiang Gallery.

Tina and I visited a few galleries and I came across Shen Shaomin's trees at Eli Klein Fine Art gallery. Strangely jointed... inhabited in constraint, brutally composed yet eerily beautiful .

Bosani-No.38, 2007 (Shen Shaomin)

 P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center 

Leandro Erlich: Swimming Pool, 2008 






Happy studio, Happy seeing!

10th Day in NYC

Tonight is one of those rare sleepless nights for me.
I usually have NO problem sleeping.
Tossing back and forth, I decided to start up a blog tonight...!




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"Cut off as I am, it is inevitable that I should sometimes feel like a shadow walking in a shadowy world. When this happens I ask to be taken to New York City. Always I return home weary but I have the comforting certainty that mankind is real and I myself am not a dream."

- Helen Keller

New York City never sleeps and it gave me no time to breathe, but to start.
It's already my 10th Day in NYC.
I've spent about 50 hours at my internships, 30 hours in the subways and buses, and a bit of cash to buy a metro card (30 days-unlimited), groceries (H-Mart), bagles and pizza (about $1-3 each), a jacket (70% off), and a haircut (by a Japanese guy).






*** FYI: If you ever lose your unlimited MetroCard, you can call 212-METROCARD (212-638-7622) for the refund.






Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY


About 7 years ago, I was at Pratt Institute participating a pre-college summer program for 6 weeks. I am back on Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (right next to Pratt), renting an apartment from a NYC-based artist Ju Young Ban whom I met at the Vermont Studio Center. One event, one connection leads to another, I am quite appalled to find myself here in NYC, barely breathing out each day trying to find my way in the midst of people, subways, maps, confusion, and visual and internal overload. I have a studio, a room, two internships, and a few friends here to begin with, and that's a wonderful start, isn't it? By the way, Johana Moscoso (aka Miss Fix-it) and Tina Han also were here in NYC last week. A big shout out to the sculpture folks at SCAD-ATL!!!








Blooming ,Ink on paper, 40 x 40 inch, 2008 (Ju Young Ban)



I like where I am staying... this past Saturday morning, I finally had some time to walk around the neighborhood. I was excited to find a good grocery market to buy some bread, milk, some fruits, and a conditioner. Beautiful trees and buildings, and the way people are interlaced here in NYC is quite intriguing, nothing like Atlanta.

Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

One of my internships is with Performa.

PERFORMA is a non-profit interdisciplinary arts organization committed to the research, development, and presentation of performance by visual artists from around the world.

This coming November 09, Performa will be putting their 3rd biennial for contemporary performance arts around the city of New York. It's interesting to see how this non-profit organization functions to execute an ambitious and daring art event, pulling a vast number of venues, funds, and artist projects togehter. So check out the website and join the mailing list.

Last night, the Performa team went to co-host the pecha-kucha night at Le Poisson Rouge. The artists, architects, designers, bloggers... presented their work and ideas with 20 images (each presentation 6 min. 40 sec.). The presenters were:

Daniel Perlin
Viraphon
Eric Sanderson
Mannahatta Project
Allegra Burnette
MoMA
Tina Roth Eisenberg
Swissmiss
Jonathan Harris
Number 27
Jay Parkinson
Hello Health
Dickson Despommier
Vertical Farm
Glen Cummings
MTWTF
Eviana Hartman
Bodkin Brooklyn
Dan Fogelson
Emeco
Deborah Fisher
21st Century Plowshare
Paul D. Miller
DJ Spooky

It was an exciting night with laughter and some shout-outs, and the event facilitated a valuable exchange of ideas and energy amongst creative minds... and we got to promote Performa's upcoming biennial!







Well, I think I can sleep now. Zzzz....