Ken Chu

www dot creative-capital dot org

2006-11-12T13:24:00.000-05:00

An Exhibition of Creative Capital Artists

The Nathan Cummings Foundation
New York, NY

October 2006 – January 2007

Cory Arcangel
Mel Chin
Maya Sara Churi
Liz Cohen
Critical Art Ensemble
Elena del Rivero
Peggy Diggs

Ricardo Dominguez
Hasan Elahi
Pablo Helguera
Eduardo Kac
Hirokazu Kosaka
Suzanne Lacy, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Yutaka Kobayashi
Golan Levin
Franco Mondini-Ruiz
Sheryl Oring
Ted Purves & Susanne Cockrell
®™ark
Paul Shambroom

www dot creative-capital dot org is an exhibition of images and text that spotlight risk-taking in contemporary art practice and innovation in artist support. Since 1999 the Creative Capital Foundation has provided individual artist project grants in all contemporary disciplines, and developed a comprehensive, breakthrough funding model that helps artists thrive in today's cultural landscape. The featured grantees are artists who have not only made engaging, groundbreaking work, but have also employed new delivery and distribution systems for what they produce. Through a series of project descriptions and their documentation on wall panels and Sony PlayStation Portables, this exhibition highlights their unconventional methodologies, embracing what art is—and what it may become—in this new century.

Project Director, Ken Chu
Photos by Becket Logan and Ken Chu

CHANNELLING ANDY

2006-01-31T21:55:00.000-05:00

Breathe Residency
Chinese Arts Centre
Manchester, UK

Time-based work | 2006

In Channelling Andy I worked with a group of knitters to create a series of paintings. I do not knit, but wanted to develop a project involving people with skills that I don't have. Recycling plastic bags as the yarn, knitted covers were made to fit over monochromatic paintings.

Participants included Matthew Bamber, Andrew Hardman, Brigid Marsh, and Stephen Maxwell. The project also engaged each of their personal networks in the production. Artists are the best resources for each other, and utilizing the social economies of the knitters in rendering this project was one of the key components.

Over the course of three months, all activities took place in the Breathe studio at the Chinese Arts Centre. Channelling was my project for the open studio, which coincided with the opening of the British Art Show, a biennial national survey show of contemporary British artists. The public was welcomed to join in.

Matthew Bamber not pictured.

Photos by Jess Emmett and Ken Chu

CHANNELLING ANDY, THE CLOSING

2006-01-30T21:49:00.000-05:00

Breathe Residency
Chinese Art Centre
Manchester, UK

2006

first image | installation view
The studio was cleared for a formal presentation, and a closing reception was held for the finished works. Each participant knitted a smaller individual work (20”x20”), and then collaborated on a large-format piece (30"x70").

second image | installation view
The title referenced the social network in Andy Warhol's Factory; and how this multidisciplinary group was able to invent and sustain its myth and legacy.

third image | Cuddle Painting: Andrew Hardman

fourth image | Cuddle Painting: Brigid Marsh

fifth image | Cuddle Painting: Matthew Bamber

sixth image | Cuddle Painting: Stephen Maxwell

TWELFTH

2006-01-29T21:44:00.000-05:00

A digital video for the BBC Big Screen
Manchester, UK

Video-based work | 2006

Installation view
Twelve was a continuous video piece constructed of pictures of the people each of the artists interacted with in the course of a twelve-hour day. Each person was photographed twice: once in a relaxed state and then again in exuberance. The images were compiled together alternating the drab and joyous of the same person to create a digital flipbook.

Twelve served as self-portraits through the documentation of our constructed communities. It was a work that looked to take the emphasis off our cultural heritage so we could be seen, holistically, as full citizens.

It premiered on Chinese New Year, and was screened five times daily for a month.

Participants included Amy Cham, Debbie Chan, Nina Chua, Jess Emmett, Kazuko Kuroda, Ying Kwok, Kwong Lee, and Yuen Fong Ling.

All WE WERE SAYING

2005-12-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

A happening on December 21
Apartment
Manchester, UK

Performance-based installation | 2005

first image | installation view of bedroom
Same sex civil partnerships were legally recognized in England and Wales on 21 December 2005.

All We Were Saying was a one-day performance work with two men in bed knitting for peace. Saying provided a public forum for ordinary queer citizens and their friends to mark this momentous occasion. The participants were Matt Bamber and his partner, Andy Hardman.

second image | detail of television broadcast
The work was referenced the Yoko Ono/John Lennon 1969 Amsterdam 'bed-in' for peace.

Saying was well received by the local media, including NW Television, the local affiliate of BBC. It taped us, and broadcasted the segment later that evening while the work was still in progress.

third image | detail of knitting
The knitted cap with the date: 21 DEC 2006.

All We Were Saying was mounted in the bedroom of Apartment, an artist-led project and exhibition space in a one-bedroom council flat in central Manchester. The space is co-run by artists Hilary Jack and Paul Harfleet; the current resident.

All We Were Saying was a first ever grassroots effort facilitated by Apartment, Castlefield Gallery, Chinese Arts Centre, and queerupnorth.

Photos by David Hancock, David Williams, and Ken Chu

CUDDLE PAINTING

2005-02-03T11:29:00.000-05:00

Real pARTy
Real Art Ways
Hartford, CT, USA

2-D work | 2005
Material: canvas, paint, plastic bags

Knit work by Champe Smith.

This work was inspired by Knoll Textile's Cuddle Cloth.

TONG ZHI/COMRADES: OUT IN ASIA AMERICA

2000-07-02T20:19:00.000-04:00

Museum of Chinese in the Americas
New York, NY, USA.

Installation | 2000
Material: Handset letterpress posters, wooden library tables, gravel, light bulbs, silk flowers

first image | installation view, to the right upon entering
Twenty gay Asian and Pacific Islander (API) men were invited to contribute a snap shot and a profile of personal data (i.e., name, ethnicity, occupation, hobby, sport, etc.) that included a reference to his sexuality. Each handset letterpress poster was printed in an edition of 100. The posters were piled on wooden library tables set on gravel.

second image | installation view, looking back towards the entrance
As lesbians and gay men in the United States, we worked at securing our civil rights and etched out a safe public space in society, but not in our culturally specific communities. Tong Zhi brings this discourse into our communities, and looks at what might be a safe public space for us in the Chinatowns, Koreatowns, Manilatowns, Little Tokyos, Little Saigons, and Little Bombays.

third image | detail of poster

Photos by Becket Logan and MoCA

REMNANTS OF DESIRE

1999-07-02T20:11:00.000-04:00

Bodies of Resistance
Real Art Ways
Hartford, CT, USA

Installation | 1999
Material: Second-hand rugs, potting soil, plates

first image | installation view
Remnants highlighted the struggle to overcome cultural taboos in order to access critical healthcare information for Asians and Pacific Islanders (API) living with HIV/AIDS, and the need for health service organizations to provide culturally sensitive information on the epidemic to at-risk ethnic populations.

Broken decorative plates were arranged on an assortment of earth-covered rugs.

second image | detail
APIs living with HIV/AIDS sought medical assistance at a later stage of the infection than other racial groups.

BACHELOR SOCIETY

1996-07-02T19:40:00.000-04:00

Extreme Unction II
Gallery 101
Ottawa, Canada

Installation | 1996
Material: Found mattresses and box springs, bed sheets silk screened with information on HIV/AIDS opportunistic diseases, house paint, light bulbs, handmade polyester pillowcases with empty soda cans, used knap sacks, autumn leaves, used baseball caps, stacks of newspaper published by homeless organization, hypodermic needles and cleaning supplies, condoms, used Winter jacket and gloves

first image | installation view
Bachelor Society was an installation that addressed marginalized communities affected by the HIV epidemic.

Fact sheets on opportunistic diseases distributed by Gay Men’s Health Crisis was silk screened onto bed sheets. Found mattresses were made up with these sheets and translucent pillowcases stuffed with material scavenged from the streets or associated with the homeless population.

second image | detail
The mattress arrangement evoked communal living, i.e., dormitories, shelters, immigrant housing, etc.

third image | detail
One of the first groups of Chinese to arrive in the United States was the laborer. Because federal legislations specifically targeted against the Chinese, most of their rights were denied, They were not permitted to own property nor bring over wives or families. The surplus of single men formed a visible "bachelor society" within the Chinatown community.

KENTUCKY BLUE

1996-06-02T20:08:00.000-04:00

I Am Not What I Am
Angel Row Gallery
Nottingham, UK

Installation | 1996
Material: Plywood, paint, plastic tarp, topsoil, grass seed, vinyl lettering, soccer balls

Installation view
The entrance to the upper level galleries is located on a main thoroughfare in downtown Nottingham. In the window of the entryway, soil was seeded, and grass grew for the duration of the exhibition (3 months).

Text: In contemporary Western societies, sports has come to enshrine the myths around masculinity and race. In England, there is one Asian professional footballer.

FOOTBALL PITCH

1996-06-02T20:00:00.000-04:00

I Am Not What I Am
Angel Row Gallery
Nottingham, UK

Installation | 1996
Material: Plywood, plastic tarp, sod, polyester fabric, menu holders, plastic menu sleeves, laser prints, soccer balls, paint, gaffer’s tape

first image | installation view
In the main gallery, the wooden panels were removed from the cathedral height windows to allow for the natural light. Local sod for soccer fields was laid on top of banquet tables. Sporty colored stripes defined the parameter of the pitch. Soccer balls and “menus” were scattered over the field. On the backside printed on black paper, the menus offered a fare of aphorisms on masculinity and race.

second image | detail
The food service industry is one of the few career options for Asian immigrants.

T-CELLS AND SYMPATHY

1996-02-02T19:48:00.000-05:00

Brenda and Other Stories
Walsall Museum and Galleries
Walsall, UK

Installation | 1996
Material: House paint, second-hand kitchen tables and chairs, earth, teapots, plastic plaques, wooden shelving, medical paraphernalia, items from local charity shops, birthday cake

first image | installation view of far and right walls
T-Cells was about the process of building a memory bank of both good and challenged times for families affected by HIV/AIDS.

On the shelves were thematic displays of household items mixed with medical supplies and HIV/AIDS information in several South Asian languages. Teapots were placed on earth-covered kitchen tables.

second image | installation view of the right and back walls
T-Cells focused on an often-overlooked population affected by the HIV epidemic: children and families. Some children are infected through maternal-fetal transmission, but the vast majority is not infected with the virus and will be survivors of their mothers, most often the single parent. As a result, an increasing percentage of the orphans in the world will be from HIV/AIDS.

third image | installation view
At the time I was developing T-Cells, a national children agency had mounted and traveled an exhibition of art and writings by children living in families affected by HIV/AIDS. The agency offered material for T-Cells, and mounted on the fourth wall were excerpts that were engraved onto plastic plaques.

Sample text: I can’t stop the tears. Joanna, age 11

fourth image | detail

CAFE CURE

1994-07-02T19:21:00.000-04:00

42nd Street Project
Creative Time
New York, NY, USA

Installation | 1994
Material: Medical paraphernalia, paper coffee cups, malt glasses, spoons, bleach, laser prints, Ken dolls, acupuncture meridian models, ribbons, diner-ware, dog toys, condoms, house paint

first image | exterior view
In an abandoned diner on 42nd Street by Times Square, Cafe Cure was a site-specific installation that encouraged people living with HIV/AIDS to consider alternative healthcare along with their primary healthcare; and to draw attention to an epidemic that crosses all boundaries, including race, class, and gender.

second image | installation view
The work was viewed from the street only. Iconic to-go coffee cups in intravenous feeding bags were suspended in the refrigeration unit, needle cleaning kits accompanied milk shake glasses, daily special signs offered morphine drip coffee, plates of hotdog with condom relish.

third image | detail
200 Ken dolls dipped in yellow paint, some tagged with positive signs.

The site no longer exists.

Photos by Artist