Chinatown Projects

Asian Arts Initiative's Chinatown In/flux starts on a new endeavor!

2009 CHINATOWN IN/FLUX:

Future Landscape

An exhibition of site-specific art installations in Chinatown Philadelphia

The Asian Arts Initiative is pleased to announce visual artists Rebecca Hackemann, Nadia Hironaka, Hiroko Kikuchi, Jeremy Liu, Jonathan Stemler and Kimberly Stemler as the featured artists in the second installment of Chinatown In/flux.

Exhibition: March-June 2009


Proposals and Project Teams:

Visionary Sightseeing Binoculars
Proposed by Rebecca Hackemann (Philadelphia, PA)

Project Summary
Visionary Sightseeing Binoculars inspires future change and development in the landscape and infrastructure of Chinatown North.  Through mixed media workshops with community groups, new visions will be created.  These images will be placed inside of large binoculars directly across from the locations for passers by to view and vote for their favorite one.


Chinatown TM
Proposed by Hiroko Kikuchi and Jeremy Liu (Jamaica Plain, MA)

Project Summary
    Chinatown TM is a site-and community specific public art project that addresses the concept of “Chinatown” as a “multiple.”  Consisting of three multi-faceted elements, the project draws the attention to three themes: Food, Commodity, and Identity and utilizes the social and performance art intervention methodology combined with the community development strategy to engaged residents and community members in a personal, reflective, and prospective process.


Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
Proposed by Nadia Hironaka (Philadelphia, PA)

Project Summary
    Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio investigates oral storytelling and how communities reestablish themselves through the reinvention of cultural mythology and historical folklore.  Through this project, stories will be created combing old and new elements of Asian and American folklore that are transformed into short films and animations shared by video projection onto walls or windows of Chinatown.


The Little Red String
Proposed by Jonathan and Kimberly Stemler (Green Lane, PA)

Project Summary
    The Little Red String sees the stars as the link across land and seas, and will mimic the night’s sky by building small lanterns to fill a dark space in Chinatown North.  Through story-telling and lantern making workshops, they will collect and discuss the stories of our journeys.  Stories will be written on lanterns, and located individually through hand-held maps and our website.

The Project

Throughout its history, Philadelphia’s Chinatown—like many Chinatowns throughout the country—has struggled with encroachment upon its borders. With projects like Independence Park to the east, the Gallery shopping mall on the south, the Convention Center to the west, Chinatown has in effect been “boxed in.” More recently, private developers have been building luxury condominiums throughout the area, which is now sometimes referred to as the “Loft District.”
 
At the same time, Philadelphia’s Chinatown has strong history of resiliency and growth--changing with the constant influx of new immigrants—and a rich tradition of activism and the ability to affect positive change, from the fight to stop the Vine Street Expressway from dividing the neighborhood to the dreams of creating greenspace and building a community center.
 
Chinatown In/flux: Future Landscape will be a public exhibition project that affirms the rights of neighborhood residents and community members to define, control land, and make decisions about Philadelphia’s Chinatown. Through site-specific installations in neighborhood locations, the exhibition hopes to expand the physical and social boundaries of Chinatown, and catalyze community-wide imagination and present a positive vision for Chinatown’s future.  

Background

Click here for more information about the Background.

The Call

Click here for more information about The Call.

Additional Information About Philadelphia's Chinatown:

 Historical Society of Philadelphia’s articles on Chinatown:
  http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=112
  http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=190
 
  Asian Arts Initiative’s Chinatown Live(s) Oral History Project pages:                   http://www.asianartsinitiative.org/programs/chinatown.php
      
 Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission documents about              Philadelphia’s Chinatown Neighborhood Plan are available upon request      For an abstract, please see:  
 http://www.dvrpc.org/asp/pubs/publicationabstract.asp?pub_id=04047

Catch our InvASIAN resistance to building a stadium:
http://blip.tv/file/107788/

The Phases

We conceive of Future Landscape in two phases: Planning and Exhibition. The Planning Phase begins with the artist application and project concepts. Our curatorial committee will review the applications and select artists for the Planning Phase. Selected artists will be expected to attend a planning retreat to meet with and give presentations to local community members; and then spend time identifying potential site locations and refining their project concepts. During the planning retreat and following, Asian Arts Initiative staff will be available to assist the artists with building community relationships, researching sites, and providing feedback on the project concepts.
 
During the Planning Phase, artists will be expected to develop full project proposals and project budgets, and to make a final project presentation to our curatorial committee members. Based on the project proposals and presentations, our curatorial committee will select between one and four artists’ projects to include in the Exhibition Phase.
 
Artists selected for the Planning Phase will be provided with an honorarium of $1,000 after the final project presentation. Artists who live outside the Philadelphia region will also receive transportation and housing for the initial retreat weekend and final presentation. It is anticipated that artists selected for the exhibition will receive commissioning fees of up to $5,000 and will each have access to a budget of up to $10,000 for fabrication and installation costs for their projects.
 

Selection Process & Criteria

The Asian Arts Initiative will rely upon a curatorial committee in the project development and artist selection process. Our curatorial committee is comprised of individuals who represent diverse experience in community development and the arts, and all of whom have a strong working knowledge of the Asian Arts Initiative’s inaugural Chinatown In/flux project: Project Director Gayle Isa, who will have the primary curatorial role in shaping the exhibition; and Tomie Arai, Edwin Ramoran, and Andy Toy.
In reviewing artist applications, we will be applying the following criteria:
 

• Strength and originality of the project concept, and the artist’s ability to achieve it
• Quality of the artist’s past work and relevant experience, particularly with public art and community-based art making
• Artist’s and project’s approach for interacting with the local community
• Artist’s and project’s anticipated impact on the local community
  

The curatorial decisions for the Exhibition Phase will also consider the logistical and financial feasibility of proposed projects; and their fit with other artists’ proposals and the overall themes of Chinatown In/flux: Future Landscape.

Chinatown In/flux Exhibition 2005

A community-wide art exhibition created by seven of today’s leading artists—Tomie Arai, Skowmon Hastanan, Mei-ling Hom, Hirokazu Kosaka, JiHyun Park, Jean Shin and Steve Wong—investigated the changing demographics within Philadelphia’s Chinatown community, the expanding geographic borders of the neighborhood, and the shifting of perspectives among residents and tourists alike. Chinatown In/flux allows us to see Chinatown with new eyes: as a place of extraordinary cultural intersections, shifting boundaries, and boundless imagination—a place inexorably In/flux.
Supported with a major grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

Chinatown In/flux ran from October 21, 2005 to January 29, 2006 in various sites throughout Philadelphia’s Chinatown. Please see www.chinatowninflux.org for more information.

Chinatown Live(s) & Chinatown Oral History Project

The Chinatown Oral History Project documented 17 Philadelphia's Chinatown residents, workers, and community members. Listen to their stories as they share their perspectives on Chinatown. Visit www.asianartsinitiative.org/oralhistory to read and hear the interviews.

Preview excerpts from Chinatown Live(s)

Preface
Essay - Lena Sze
John Kai Chin
Eric Law
Cecilia Moy Yep

The interviews were then compiled into a book titled Chinatown Live(s) and edited by Lena Sze. Photographs of the interviewees were taken by Rodney Atienza. Visit the store to buy a copy of the book.