Crescendo: How Art Makes Movements (1981–1999) is a historical survey of multidisciplinary art projects that intersected with Asian American social movements between 1981 and 1999. Largely inspired by jazz and improvised music, art forms central to the Black Arts Movement, the artists featured in this exhibition intended to redefine the presence of Asian Americans and broaden their artistic horizons beyond the politics of representation. Crescendo, the exhibition’s title, is a metaphor to capture the growing sociopolitical activism during this time, which coincided with an artistic and cultural renaissance within the Asian American community, as reflected in major achievements in music, poetry, dance, theater, and opera through collaborative explorations.
The exhibition is divided into three sections that trace different collective projects: Asian Improv aRts/Records, the Afro Asian Music Ensemble, and the East Side Band. Through experimentation with a range of traditional and modern instruments, the artists sought to create an American sound that was reflective of Asian cultural heritage and themes. Their collaborative projects, with their distinct focus and approach, shared a common goal to not only create a new artistic language but also to coalesce the community in resistance to racial oppression and systemic violence. Asian Improv Records/aRts (AIR) was founded by Jon Jang and Francis Wong in San Francisco in 1987, later expanded to Chicago by Tatsu Aoki, and is currently known as Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW). During the 1980s and 1990s, AIR created social, cultural, and political spaces for artists with Asian heritage to explore the complexities of the Asian American experience. Numerous artists worked with AIR in different levels of involvement, including Fred Anderson, Bobby Bradford, Anthony Brown, Fred Ho, Glenn Horiuchi, Vijay Iyer, Mark Izu, Miya Masaoka, Hafez Modirzadeh, and Genny Lim. The Afro Asian Music Ensemble (AAME), formed by Fred Ho in New York in 1982, was an attempt to create a collaborative musical language between Black and Asian communities that fosters political consciousness and cultural inclusivity. David Bindman, Wes Brown, Sam Furnace, royal hartigan, Art Hirahara, Masaru Koga, and Allen Won were among the musicians who played for AAME. Guest artists included Marina Celander, Peggy Choy, Jose Figueroa, Ann T. Greene, Magdalena Gómez, and Esther Iverem. The Far East Side Band, founded by Jason Kao Hwang with Sang-Won Park and Yukio Tsuki in New York in 1992, blended jazz with Asian musical traditions. Hwang's earlier project, Commitment, was one of the first Afro-Asian free jazz ensembles, establishing a collective interest in multicultural music in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Commitment featured Will Connell, Jay Oliver, Jr., Zen Matsuura, and William Parker.
The Storefront Gallery showcases a library where viewers are encouraged to browse and engage. The curated selection includes catalogs, artist monographs, interview scripts, and related scholarly texts–some of which have been authored by participating artists of Crescendo. The library provides deeper historical context and understanding, inviting visitors to explore beyond the archives and artworks on display. The bookshelf, composed of four modular segments that can be easily interchanged and reconfigured to fit different event needs, is designed specifically to create an interactive experience for visitors. Alongside the books, Asian Arts Initiative is presenting two artistic projects by Philadelphia-based artists. The first is a collaboration between Theodore Harris and Amiri Baraka, founder of the Black Arts Movement. Together, they examine the politics of Black aesthetics through collage and poetry. On the other side, five sets of Annotated Readers (2021) by Fortune, an artist collective consisting of Andra Palchick, Heidi Ratanavanich, and Connie Yu, focus on specific themes, including queer movements, affordable housing movements, and civil rights movements, the work comprises a collection of queer Asian archival materials from 1971–2003, with reflections from writers in the community.
Crescendo: How Art Makes Movements (1981-1999) brings into focus the roots of the rich artistic traditions developed by artists of Asian descent and their roles in creating a collective identity that has not yet been fully recognized nor discussed. By looking to the past, the exhibition probes the emergence of a shared commitment to art-making and activism, and how these strands have influenced the work of subsequent generations of artists. While Crescendo only touches upon a portion of this broader narrative, it represents an important first step in exploring Asian American artistic histories—histories marked by struggles that might otherwise be lost or forgotten.
Read Full Curatorial Statement (PDF)
On Telling a Complex Story: Supplementary Statement (PDF)
Gallery is open Thursday through Saturday 2-6PM. The gallery hours will extended on 4/27 (Crescendo Symposium), 5/9 (AAI Annual Benefit), and will be closed on 6/19 (Juneteenth)
Archives Support: Asian American Resource Workshop, Asia Society, Asian Improv Records/aRts and Asian Improv aRts Midwest, Ben Barson, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco, Corky Lee Estate, East Side Freedom Library, East Wind Magazine, Fred Ho Estate, In Motion Magazine, Jason Kao Hwang, Jose Figueroa, KULARTS, Northeastern University Library, Riksha Magazine Archives, Sonoko Kawahara, UNITE HERE Local 17, Minneapolis, University of Connecticut, Archives & Special Collections, University of Minnesota, Unity Archive, Walker Art Center, Yale University Library
Special Thanks to: Philip Bither, Curt Fukuda, Ann T. Greene, royal hartigan, Steve Hom, Howard Kling, Joseph Melillo, Nicholas Paget-Clarke, Peter Rachleff, Arthur J. Sabatini, The Kitchen, Eddie Wong, Ken Yamada, Alexander Yu, Perry Yung
This exhibition is curated by Joyce Chung with a curatorial assistance from Cole Roberts and Liz Karceswki. Exhibition design by Office of Human Resources. Audio recording productions by Rowhome Productions. Installation by Matthew Belknap, Mark Knobelsdorf, Steve Koteff, and Misha Wyllie with support from RichArt Graphics. Exhibition graphics design by Lucy Price.
Funding for this exhibition was provided in part by the Mellon Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Ford Foundation, and National Performance Network.
