This week: A photography exhibition that reveals the political and social movements in Taiwan; a movie about Bruce Lee; and a summer art party with the curators and artists of the Fully Loaded show.
Additionally, on Thursday, August 24, Cheryl Wing-zi Wong’s and Henna-Riikka Halonen’s collaboration Pinch, Fold, Cut, Line will present an installation-environment and performance at Triangle’s open studios from 6 – 9 PM.
About the show and performance: Constructed as a multi-dimensional, domestic proposition, with spaces within spaces, Pinch, Fold, Cut, Line creates a disorienting, ever-expanding and warped environment woven with vignettes. Setting up a tension between the texts ‘Tropisms’ (Natalie Sarraute) and A Pattern Language (Christopher Alexander), Pinch, Fold, Cut, Line disables the audience’s normative perception of events, materials and spaces in order to present new modes of being and seeing.
The DC Chinese Film Festival, in partnership with VCinema, has launched a call for guest bloggers to write about Chinese cinema as part of their Retrospective on Chinese Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s which will take place September 21 – 24. If you’re interested in contributing take a look at the open call page.
More locally, here in New York, W.O.W. Project and China Residencies has just put out an open call for the the second Storefront 店面 Residency at Wing on Wo & Co. at 26 Mott Street in Chinatown.
Coming up:
September 6 – Abacus: Small Enough to Jail – the acclaimed documentary about a Chinatown bank which was the only bank to face charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
September 8 – Enchanted Formosa – Singer-songwriter Yu-Wei Hsieh combines music from indigenous tribes, Hoklo groups, and Hakka villages into contemporary folk, pop, and alt-rock forms
September 10 – Chui Wan at Baby’s All Right
We add talks, films, performances, exhibitions, featuring or relating to Chinese, Taiwanese, diasporic artists and topics to our event and ongoing exhibition calendars as we learn of them.
We post frequently on our Facebook page. So check the page for links we share and get a heads up on events before we include them in these weekly posts. For art, images, and other instances of Chineseness we see, follow our Instagram page.
We’re looking for contributors! If you’re interested in writing an article, contributing photos or artwork to be featured with our weekly events and exhibitions listing, letting us know about an event, send a pitch at beyondchinatown@gmail.com.
UPCOMING EVENTS
1) Summer Roses Art Party – Mingle with artists and others and join art historian Shupei Lee (李書豆）from Tainan, Taiwan for a talk relating to the current exhibition Fully Loaded which likens New York and Tainan, both outposts of Dutch influence during the 17th century. The various artists included in this exhibition reflect different aspects of the culture of Tainan or New York, generating snapshots growing out of life experience. In addition to the stresses mentioned below, they react to fissures between male and female, between Taoist folk religion on the one hand and science and technology on the other, and the ever-present strains between rural and urban life.
Saturday, August 26, 2 – 5 PM
Pfizer Building, 630 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn
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2) History’s Shadows and Light: Exhibition Preview With Curators Sharleen Yu & Liu Chen-hsiang – Join curators Liu Chen-hsiang and Sharleen Yu for a preview and walkthrough of the exhibition History’s Shadows and Light at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York (see below). The exhibition features photographs of major political and social movements in Taiwan from 1986 to 1990—a time when photography not only bore witness to society’s dramatic transformation immediately before and after the end of martial law in 1987, but also began to expand the expressive possibilities of contemporary art.
RSVP with Asia Art Archive in America
Tuesday, August 29, 5:30 PM
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
ONGOING FILMS, SHOWS, AND EVENTS
1) Birth of the Dragon – Young Bruce Lee is trying to make a name for himself while working as a martial arts instructor in 1964 San Francisco. When Lee meets Wong Jack Man, he challenges the kung fu master to a no-holds-barred fight that became the stuff of legend.
At AMC Theatres in and around the New York City area.
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2) Wolf Warrior 2 《战狼2》– The Wolf Warrior is back, bigger and badder than ever, in this action-packed sequel to the 2015 blockbuster hit. With his career in tatters, China’s deadliest Special Forces operative has settled into a quiet life on the sea. But when he crosses paths with a sadistic band of mercenaries terrorizing innocent civilians, he must reaffirm his duty as a soldier and save the day once again. Fists (and bullets, tanks, missiles and much more) will fly in this adrenaline-fueled tour de force of bravura action filmmaking, all culminating into a climactic battle between the Wolf Warrior and the mercenary leader (Frank Grillo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War).
The film is known for its patriotism, some call it the Chinese Rambo, and has become the highest-grossing movie ever in China in the world.
At AMC Empire 25
ART EXHIBITIONS
Opening and New Listed:
History’s Shadows and Light (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, 8/29 – 10/12) – Organized by and first shown as a special section of the exhibition Faint Light, Dark Shadows at Taipei Fine Arts Museum from March to June of this year, History’s Shadows and Light features photographs of major political and social movements in Taiwan from 1986 to 1990—a time when photography not only served witness to society’s drastic transformation immediately before and after the end of martial law in 1987, but also began to expand the expressive force and contagious appeal of the contemporary photographic aesthetic.
This exhibition ponders some of the issues that arose with the lifting of martial law, such as human rights, farmers’ and workers’ movements, and environmental protection, as documented through the lens of several of Taiwan’s most representative photojournalists—Liu Chen-hsiang, Huang Tzu-ming and Hsu Po-hsin, as well as the rarely seen documentary films of the Green Team.
Extracting the idea of processing photographs in a darkroom back in film-camera era, in this exhibition a series of negatives are displayed in the lightboxes, juxtaposed with enlarged black and white prints of selected shots. This demonstrates the creation of picturesque language for individual expressions through various innovative photographic approaches, and discloses the process of photography in Taiwan moving from sheer documentation to today’s contemporary art form.
Close-up of installation. Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Taipei Cultural Center in New York
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Wong Kit Yi is a resident at EFA’s Shift Residency for 2017 – 2018. Learn about her practice and others in the residency at the open house and reception on Friday, August 25.
Dongfan Chen is part of the Studio Artists Exhibition at NARS Foundation, which closes on September 1.
Hai-Hsin Huang‘s humorous and insightful observations of people out in the world — including one of the enormous drawings showing a moment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be on view as part of Revealing Reflected Refractions at Tiger Strikes Asteroid August 4 – September 10.
In addition to an installation at Fully Loaded: Tainan – New York 2017, Lulu Meng‘s will also exhibit her sculpture series Impression in which “softness and movement [of articles of clothing are] frozen in the solidity of the object” is part of the Fourth AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
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Closing soon:
Jennifer Wen Ma: Entry Niches (Van Doren Waxter, 5/11 – 8/25)
Informality (group show with Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, NYFA Gallery, 5/4 – 9/1)
Yi Xin Tong: NYC Fishing Trip (NARS Foundation, 8/4 – 9/1)
Liu Wei: Cellar and Garret (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/10 – 9/2)
Transitions: Dong Yuan, Lam Tung-pang and Lao Tongli (Chambers Fine Art, 6/22 – 9/2)
Chow: Making the Chinese American Restaurant (Museum of Food and Drink Lab, 11/11/16 – 9/3/17)
Fully Loaded: Tainan – New York 2017 (Pfizer Building, 7/20 – 9/10)
Sour, Sweet, Bitter, Spicy: Stories of Chinese Food and Identity in America (Museum of Chinese in America, 10/6/2016 – 9/10/17)
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Current shows:
Visit the exhibition calendar for details for the current shows listed below. Check the museum or gallery’s website for hours of operation.
NSFW: Female Gaze (group show with Pixy Yijun Liao, Museum of Sex, 6/21 – TBC)
Jennifer Wen Ma: Entry Niches (Van Doren Waxter, 5/11 – 8/25)
Informality (group show with Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, NYFA Gallery, 5/4 – 9/1)
Yi Xin Tong: NYC Fishing Trip (NARS Foundation, 8/4 – 9/1)
Liu Wei: Cellar and Garret (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/10 – 9/2)
Transitions: Dong Yuan, Lam Tung-pang and Lao Tongli (Chambers Fine Art, 6/22 – 9/2)
Chow: Making the Chinese American Restaurant (Museum of Food and Drink Lab, 11/11/16 – 9/3/17)
Fully Loaded: Tainan – New York 2017 (Pfizer Building, 7/20 – 9/10)
Sour, Sweet, Bitter, Spicy: Stories of Chinese Food and Identity in America (Museum of Chinese in America, 10/6/2016 – 9/10/17)
Infinite Compassion: Avalokiteshvara in Asian Art (Staten Island Museum, 10/22/16 – 9/25/17)
Ian Cheng (MoMA PS1, 4/9 – 9/25)
Cinnabar: The Chinese Art of Carved Lacquer, 14th – 19th Century (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6/25/16 – 10/9/17)
From the Imperial Theater: Chinese Opera Costumes of the 18th and 19th Centuries (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6/25/16 – 10/9/17)
Colors of the Universe: Chinese Hardstone Carvings (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6/25/16 – 10/9/17)
History’s Shadows and Light (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, 8/29 – 10/12)
Heidi Lau: The Primordial Molder (Bronx Museum of the Arts, 7/19 – 10/22)
Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity, Treasures of the Han Dynasty from Xuzhou (China Institute, 5/25 – 11/12/17)
Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong – Constellation (Seward Park, June 2017 – June 2018)
Lead image: Street vendor selling lotus seed heads in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Photo by Andrew Shiue