Cantocore SF 2009 Press Release
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For Immediate Release
MISSION 17 presents
Cantocore: Free On Board
Including works by: JD Beltran, Fang Lu, Justin Hoover, Huang Xiaopeng, Misako Inaoka, David O. Johnson, Guy Overfelt, Jon Phillips, Lin Fang Suo, Wang Ge, Kathrine Worel, and Zhou Tao.
Curated by Clark Buckner, Fang Lu, Justin Hoover, Jon Phillips
February 13th – April 18th, 2009 Opening Reception: Friday, February 13th, 6 – 9 pm Artists Talk: Saturday, February 28th, 4 – 6 pm Closing Reception: Saturday, April 18th, 5 – 7 pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 1 – 6 pm, or by appointment.
Mission 17, 2111 Mission St., suite 401, San Francisco, CA info@mission17.org, http://mission17.org, 415.336.2349
Cantocore: Free On Board is the second installment of a collaborative project between select artists from San Francisco and Guangzhou, China. The first Cantocore exhibition related import and export of culture between San Francisco and Guangzhou. For Cantocore: Free On Board, some part of each piece from the first show has been shipped from Guangzhou to San Francisco. Cantocore: Free On Board is an unveiling of the artists reactivated and reformatted works for Mission 17 in San Francisco.
The collaboration, “Cantocore,” takes its inspiration and name from the rapid economic, social, and cultural changes taking place in Guangzhou, the third most populous city in China. Even in the midst of economic crises, factories are producing, Canto hip-hop is blasting, and the cultural industries are progressing. Over the last 30 years cities such as Guangzhou, the capital of Canton, have rapidly expanded economically and socially. From revolutionary upheavals to becoming industrialized global cities influenced and informed by diverse forms of representation, Chinese artists have exerted a growing influence on culture globally. Perhaps nowhere more than here on the Pacific rim of California have Chinese-Americans, who primarily immigrated from Southern China, played such a crucial role in the state's inception, particularly in San Francisco. Not only does this city have the largest import of Chinese people of any US city, these immigrants also created the largest Chinatown in North America. However, understanding the conceptual framework of Cantocore is not limited to geographic divisions, nor reductive dichotomies driven by post-colonial stereotypes such as East versus West or Olympic nationalisms. Cantocore is the reality of life versus the theory set forth by jurisdictions where people live.
For Cantocore: Free On Board, the project uses the shipping jargon “free,” or “freight on board.” This technically means the exporter pays for materials being loaded to ship and the rest of a shipment is paid for upon arrival by the importer. In fact, parts of all artwork for this show have been in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with other “Made in China” freight on board destined for San Francisco at some time. In transit, these objects were locked down as cultural artifacts, stored in a type of stasis until arrival. During this time, the concepts and plans for these pieces were in constant motion with the curators and artists. In shipment, cargo is stored potential energy. It is the physical manifestation of aggressive growth and development in China and the buying power of the United States in the midst of economic rebalancing. It is here in-transit, on these cargo ships that these artifacts are free from consumption and production. It is only when they arrive at their destination, Mission 17 in San Francisco, that they are reactivated as cultural objects, connecting with their planned conceptual trajectory.
Cantocore: Free On Board explores this reactivation and reformatting of works, furthering the dialogue between San Francisco and Guangzhou. Artists involved include Americans with roots in China, Chinese who have come to study and work in San Francisco, and Americans who have emigrated to China. Other artists employed Chinese products and fabrication methods to construct their projects and some Chinese artists examined American ideology. The first installment of the project, titled Cantocore: Import/Export, took place in September 2008 at the Ping Pong Space in Guangzhou. Cantocore: Free On Board is the follow-up response.
How will these artists' work read differently across the globe? How do the histories and environments of each city inform the aesthetics of the work produced and presented there? Which concerns are common to both regions, and which are altogether different? How have the projects changed through time, with local available materials, in a different cultural context?
About Mission 17
Mission 17 is a not-for-profit center for visual culture. We exhibit and support the work of emerging and mid-career artists, with particular emphasis on experimental art forms and the opportunities they present for social and psychological reflection. And we work to generate public discourse about ideology and the aesthetics of everyday life. Our programs aim 1) to promote San Francisco’s vital art scene, 2) to engage our local community with questions concerning how we see ourselves and our world, and, 3) through our publications and outreach, to contribute to the international dialogue on contemporary art and culture.
For more information, please visit http://mission17.org
About Cantocore
Fabricatorz and the Garage Biennale bring you Cantocore, a research project investigating contemporary art and culture between Canton (Guangzhou) and San Francisco. The initial contemporary art exhibition Cantocore: Import/Export took place in September 2008 at Ping Pong Space in Guangzhou, China. The second half of the show, Cantocore: Free On Board opens February 2009 at Mission 17 in San Francisco.
For more information, please visit http://cantocore.com
Press Kit
Artist Bios
JD Beltran is a West Coast based artist and filmmaker whose work pushes the language of portraiture. Her works explore persona using various media, from traditional representational painting to costumed dolls to video installations reflecting hidden secrets. Using the concept of the portrait as a starting point, she synthesizes new and old imagery and media to arrive at a combination of tradition and innovation.
Fang Lu is a video artist working in Beijing, San Francisco and Guangzhou. Her earlier projects investigate the condition of video in art making and the dynamics within the production process through participation, improvisation, real-time and socialization. Her current work uses common formats from popular culture such as the news, reality TV show, music videos, and online videos to dissect culture and political meanings in the media and in our everyday society.
Justin Hoover is a Bay Area artist, curator, and writer. His artistic practice uses performance, social sculpture, and video to investigate intercultural flows and histories.
Huang Xiao Peng is a British-Chinese artist living and working in Guangzhou, China.
Misako Inaoka’s work arises from the boundary between what we call natural and artificial, constructing miniature sculptures and environments that are rooted in the reality of vanishing species and mutating nature.
David Johnson is a San Francisco-based sculptor who uses construction materials to create objects that defy their own nature.
Lin Fangsuo is a conceptual artist. He select a medium based upon his concept. He is interested in the social problems of the current Chinese transitional period. He considers video art as a weapon to intervene in society. Recently, he used video, installation, image and mixed media to investigate social problems arising in the Chinese commercial flux.
Guy Overfelt plays with laughable notions of American-ness. Through a convergence of artistic practices, Overfelt re-imagines by-products of desire. He modifies his iconic Hollywood styled, Detroit-powered ideas to create mono-prints, peel-out paintings and a life-sized inflatable Trans-AM. His high performance actions shift cultural objects from the familiar to a more obscure metaphoric output.
Jon Phillips is an artist and developer contributing to society and building meaningful relationships. In 2002 he helped launch the open source drawing tool, Inkscape, leads the Open Clip Art Library, built Creative Commons‘ community and business development strategies from 2005 until 2008 and is growing the media company Fabricatorz with Cantocore Art Exhibitions and the Laoban Open Soundsystem in Beijing.
Wang Ge received a BFA degree from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and is an MFA candidate in the Architecture and Environment Design Department. He is the main designer of Wu Xiang Design Studio in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts where his practice involves space-related design and artistic activities.
Kathrine Worel is a cross media artist whose most recent work explores idea of surface, deeply influenced by her desire to discover and create connections—personal, visual or metaphorical through the employ of mixed media ranging from video, to paintings, to installation.
Zhou Tao is a Chinese artist working with video and time based media to reframe private daily activity in various public spaces such as shopping centers or other areas of commercial exchange. Born in Chang Sha, China, he now lives in Guangzhou. He graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts with an MFA degree in 2006. He works with video and mixed media.
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