www dot creative-capital dot org

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

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

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

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

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

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

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