#thechinaoutpost

[thechinaoutpost]

00252 Thu 01Aug19 . I’m eight weeks into #WurlitzerResidency.  Reading a passage from Werner Herzog’s journals - “November 1974, a friend from Paris called and told me that Lotte Eisner was seriously ill and would probably die. I said that this must not be, not at this time … I took a jacket, a compass and a duffel bag … I set off on the most direct route to Paris, in full faith, believing that she would stay alive if I came on foot…”  Herzog’s heart and passion for a dear friend is uplifting! I’m in #Taos - working on an #essayfilm entitled #InTandemWithTimeRiversBecome … like Herzog, I wander around the mountains, along the Rio Grande, mountain peaks - making sense of my dreams that has serendipitously brought me here. I pour my heart and passion into the land.  A few weeks back, I discovered a space place. It is a place where two rivers meet, a place where I move in tandem with time.

[thechinaoutpost]

00246 Wed 01May19 (Int’l Workers’ Day / #MayDay) . It’s been a while since my last posting.  Work at #thechinaoutpost continues.  I’ve set up shop in Santa Fe NM.  Very grateful to be here!

[thechinaoutpost]

00243 Thu 11Oct18 . 0826a >>> 11Jul18 - Shamian Island . Guangzhou ::: Healing begins by facing the foundation of contentious land, the stolen land - the unfamiliar.   I returned to Shamian Island, a land that was ceded to Britain and France as a result of the Opium Wars in the 1800s.  It has since returned to Chinese sovereignty. What’s left behind are colonial debris engulfed by Guangzhou’s hyper urban development. What will the public space on Shamian Island look like with the eventual reconstruction of my ancestral house on this contested site?  I made a pilgrimage here to better understand the site’s current use and how people interact with the space. I was surprised to observe the public’s strong desire and sentiment towards these colonial buildings. Newlyweds, dressed in their suits and gowns, staged photoshoots of their wedding pictures in front of these foreign structures while models struck poses for their fashion shoots.  Curious passerby captured images of these activities while taking their selfies along the way.  I felt like I was a part of a weird theatre unfolding as I walked down the central axis that divides the island’s east-west corridor.  The experience, needless to say, was too overwhelming.

[thechinaoutpost]

00239 Sat 30Jun18 . 1305p >>> (Mar 2018) Philip P Choy pour his heart in advocating the immigration station at #angelisland as a place of national significance. A plaque was dedicated in 1997. The existing detention center is now a museum. The family members whose ancestors were detained on Angel Island had their closure.  How to make the stagnant plaque breath again?  How do I give life to this static site for others? As #thechinaoutpost moves between spaces, curious passerby often ask me where shall I reconstruct my ancestral house?  I can only manage to say, “I do not know but it must be by a body of water.” I now have a more concrete answer, that is, I shall reconstruct my ancestral house on this contested land.  The spatial injustice of this land requires excavation.  What arises is a platform for all of us to be in conversation about the relevancy of this story to the unfolding, malleable events happening to families and individuals who are detained today.

[thechinaoutpost]

00238 Sat 30Jun18 . 1119a >>> months have past … reluctant to post.  #thechinaoutpost made a pilgrimage to #angelisland in March to pay respect to our ancestors who were detained within these walls at the height of the Chinese Exclusion Act. #RacialExclusion of the past still haunts to this present day. (at Hong Kong International Airport 香港國際機場)

[thechinaoutpost]

00237 Fri 23Mar18 . 0920 >>> the art community has convened @pitzerartgalleries for meaningful conversations about defending our community against gentrification, artistic culture of the incarcerated, creative/critical response to the policing of borders in the global north and south, and the on-going vestiges of violence. #thechinaoutpost ... (at Pitzer College)

[thechinaoutpost]

00236 Fri 19Jan18 . 1535 >>> “I do not have much but what I do have are my body, my words, and my actions. When woven together, these humble acts of small gestures become powerful voices of poetic resistance over the course of time. Since 2011, I’ve taken on a lifelong project entitled #thechinaoutpost which I define as my nomadic sweatshop of one. It operates within a migratory framework where I labor on transforming discarded plastic bags into threads – a material I am amassing as one of the core building materials for the eventual reconstruction of my ancestral house. The video presented here animates #thechinaoutpost forthcoming journey across US-Route 6, also known as “The Grand Army of the Republic Highway”. The map details all the towns intersecting Route 6 which will become sites for the outpost’s sociocultural interventions as make-shift forums that invite passerby to open ended conversations about migration and the labor of adapting to a new home.” (at Pitzer College Art Galleries)

[thechinaoutpost]

00235 Sun 03Dec17 . 1312 >>> In preparation for the map of #thechinaoutpost forthcoming transcontinental journey, I found myself transfixed in stitching a porous border. The video is one of hope - a reminder that #weshallovercome our current state. The resulting work will be presented as part of a group exhibition entitled: “MANIFESTO: A Moderate Proposal” @pitzerartgalleries . Exhibition opens Sat 20Jan w/reception @ 3-5p. (at United States)