an ode to tradition

John and I, New Year's Eve, circa 2003? They all blur together...

My friend John and i have been tight since the end of high school when he would walk around in a mohawk and studded jacket, so cool. I was wearing ripped fishnet stockings, and had a mop of flaming red hair that would eventually transform into an emerald shade of green and begin to dread itself due to general mishandling and damage. He was actually a year ahead (which was for some reason a big divide back then) and hung out with the cool photo kids in the darkroom. All the cool juniors hung out there. My friends, a mix of mods and goths, hung out at the front flagpole, throwing black looks at the preppies and hiphop kids who passed by.

Senior year things sort of righted themselves, we all stopped having so much attitude (but kept our style) and John, having lost a year since doing an exchange program in Germany, came back and we all hung out. Cutting classes and piling into Jen's beat up used Volvo and hightailing it the Cafe Picaro in the Mission district became de rigeur. Listening to Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground, we dreamed up when we all would go off to college and finally have a "real" life. We would see indie film screenings and punk rock shows at all ages clubs.

Since then, it's been a general tradition that John and I see each other over New Year's. The common email exchange the day of (or perhaps the day before) is: "Hey, I'm in town! Let's party!" He usually comes to town from wherever he's been since his family is still here and it's a Korean tradition to pay your respects to your elders on new year's day.

Life takes us away from seeing each other except for just about once a year, tonight. This year John's in Riverside and can't come up. I can't help but feel like our ten year tradition is not quite the same this year...sigh!

Here's to you, John! Dance and stay crazy for me over there :) Punks not dead, even when they're Comparative Lit University professors! We'll do next year...

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE ELSE!!!!!!!! Let's toast!

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International HIts at the Knockout

Whew! I pooped myself out last night at "International Hits" at the Knockout bar. On the turntables were the best in 60s and 70s pop songs from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, the Middle East, and more. There's an awesome niche musical appreciation here in the Bay Area for this type of stuff (since we ARE so damn close to Asia, of course).

After you've checked out these pics, mosey on down to Neung Phak's myspace site to check out what the modern sounds of retro Asia sound like. When Neung Phak ask me to jump up to their next show, I always ask how high.









more flickr photos here!

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the bestest in hair and snow

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ring in the retro

the end of the year always sees "best of" wrap-ups or "worst ofs", so here's my contribution to the rotation that's been a-happening on the ipod this month:

"Missile," Blond Redhead, 1998
"Led Zep," Blond Redhead, 1998
"In Between Days," The Cure 1985
"Love Cats," The Cure 1985
"Province," TV on the Radio 2006
"Staring at the Sun," TV on the Radio 2005
"Poppy," TV on the Radio 2006
"Tomorrow is Already Here," Stereolab 1996
"Just Like Honey," Jesus and Mary Chain 1985
"Shadowplay," Joy Division 1979
"Transmission," Joy Division 1981
"Goodbye Horses," Psyche
"The Diamond Sea," Sonic Youth 1995
"Song for Junior," Beastie Boys
"Never Going Back," Fleetwood Mac 1977
"Go Your Own Way," Fleetwood Mac 1977
"Don't You Want Me," The Human League

And now i am officially a youtube slut after having discovered all the music videos i cherished as a ten year old girl glued to the new cable channel called MTV in 1984. i remember the cable guy thought he was being nice by giving my mom and me free showtime, too. my first window into the music and hair world was inaugurated by that strangerman. thanks dude, all these years later. Hell's ya!!!!

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james brown, RIP

Argh!
Tempering this Christmas is the fact that the godfather of soul is no longer with us. Rest in peace, magic man.

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happy holidays!!!!!

so wrong...

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upcoming show: "Take 2" in January

"Wertschafts-werte (Economic Values)" 2003

Huzzah! I'm busy prepping for another show that opens in January, "Take 2", and features Cindy Sherman, Janine Antoni, and Kara Walker, among others. Nice lineup :) I'll have quite a bit of work in it, and am recreating a work from 2003, Wertschafts-Werte (Economic Values), so there's been a lot to do. Curated by Janet Bishop from SFMOMA. Will post again as it draws nearer.

Read the press release in the link below...



---------------------
Take 2: Women Revisiting Art History
Organized by Janet Bishop, curator of painting and sculpture, SFMOMA
January 17–March 15, 2007
Mills College Art Museum
Oakland, CA

Oakland, CA - The Mills College Art Museum will feature a provocative major exhibition, featuring nine internationally recognized contemporary women artists, from January 17–March 15, 2007. Entitled Take 2: Women Revisiting Art History, the show will be organized by Janet Bishop, curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Presented in conjunction with a search for a new director and plans for a significant expansion of the Mills College Art Museum, the exhibition will focus on artists forging compelling new territory by working with existing conventions and “repurposing” them to new ends. A public reception for Take 2 will be held on January 17 in the Museum from 5:30 pm–7pm.

According to Bishop, “Take 2 presents the work of prominent women artists whose artistic strategies include reinventing established art historical conventions. The exhibition examines the conceptual, political, and often very personal motivations for the use of visual tropes ranging from scientific drawings, silhouettes, and South Asian miniatures to traditions and icons within western art history.”

The artists featured in Take 2 are:

Janine Antoni (b. 1974, the Bahamas; lives and works in New York; photography and sculpture)

Beate Gutschow (b. 1970 Mainz, Germany; lives and works in Berlin; photography)

Sherrie Levine (b. 1947 Hazleton, Pennsylvania; lives and works in New York; sculpture, photographs, and works on paper)

Cindy Sherman (b. 1954 Glen Ridge, New Jersey; lives and works in New York; photographs)

Shahzia Sikander (b. 1969 Lahore, Pakistan; lives and works in New York; works on paper)

Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974 Manila, Philippines; lives and works in San Francisco; sculpture and works on paper)

Sam Taylor-Wood (b. 1967 London; lives and works in London; films)

Catherine Wagner (b. 1953 San Francisco; lives and works in San Francisco; photographs)

Kara Walker (b. 1969 Stockton; lives and works in New York; works on paper)

Bishop points out several exhibition highlights: “Through sculptural pieces based on a billiard table in a Man Ray painting or Duchamp’s famous Large Glass, Sherrie Levine complicates issues of gender and authorship via direct riffs on the work of canonized male artists. Stephanie Syjuco points to the strange and unfamiliar nature of contemporary technological hardware through prints that treat their parts like botanical specimens. Catherine Wagner presents photographs from her project titled Re-Classifying History, in which chairs from the de Young Museum’s decorative arts collection serve as surrogates to explore human relationships.

“In addition, Walker makes provocative cut paper pieces inspired by Victorian silhouettes to focus on issues of race, violence, and slavery in the antebellum South, and Shahzia Sikander fuses elements from the ancient practice of miniature painting and contemporary western culture in small-format works that function metaphorically in a permeable global society. The exhibition will also include photographs by Beate Gutschow, Cindy Sherman, and Janine Antoni, as well as film by Sam Taylor-Wood, all of which explore classic subjects within European painting such as landscape, still life, portraiture, biblical characters, and genre painting.”

A 64-page catalogue written by Janet Bishop will accompany the exhibit.

Janet Bishop’s recent projects have included the nationally touring exhibition Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective (2005-6). She was part of the curatorial teams for 010101—Art in Technological Times (2001) and Present Tense: Nine Artists in the Nineties (1997). She is currently working on a major retrospective of the work of David Park, an exhibition celebrating SFMOMA’s 75th anniversary, and an exhibition reuniting the modernist collections of Gertrude Stein and her siblings.

Take 2: Women Revisiting Art History is free and open to the public at the Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94613. Museum hours: Tuesdays, and Thursday through Saturday 11–4 pm; Wednesday 11–7:30 pm, Sunday 12–4 pm.

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Fierce Antler at the Hemlock 12/21

Word out:

Fierce Antler
December, 21 2006 at Hemlock Tavern
w/ Dan Deacon and Alexis
1131 Polk St., San Francisco, California
Cost : $6

See ya'lls there! It will be very wrong.

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my people will whup your people

Props to Yul Kwon for clawing his way to the top of the Survivor pile. No, I don't watch this show, but of course I was tickled to see an Asian dude win the game, after having been totally horrified by the race-baiting beginning of the whole thing (when they split up everyone into ethnic teams). As a local (San Mateo boy) and having gone to my alma mater (stanford), I can safely assume that he is a total geek as well. Hey, and he looks pretty hot in that suntan, fer sure.

So taking the logic to the next step, us Asians will whup everyone else's asses and take over the world. Right? Right! Forge onwards, people.

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NYC whirlwind woosh

I'm back! New York was a total giant PARTY the whole time. Let me say it again: PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY. Lord, I don't realize how much I miss it when I'm away. I think it was a mix of me not getting fully used to the time change (four three hours ahead from the west coast) and sleeping only a few hours each night which wound up resulting in a state of constant semi-delirium. Fun delirium, trust me, but considering that this may constitute my "vacation" for the end of the year, I feel like I need an actual *restful* vacation after this frenetic one...If I ever do move my ass out there I think I will quickly learn a better way to pace myself apart from cramming it all in at once.

First off, the weather was absolutely spectacular and warmish for winter. Yesterday it felt like spring and walking in the Lower East Side with a friend was such a treat.


the grand entryway to PS1 in Long Island City, right outsida Manhattan...


Ran into friend Maureen (at right) at the PS1 opening of my show (which by the way, was not the best of my repertoire, but that wasn't my fault and we'll go into that at another time), who I met back in Honolulu over the summer when we were in the same show at the Contemporary Museum. Small world!


Alas, a trashbin in front of the Kara Walker mural in the lobby was the result of a raucous opening night featuring two bands (The Jewish and Jah Division), as well as a free bar that knocked me silly. Ouch! I won't be drinking ginger rum drinks for a very long time I bet...


Maureen + Kara Walker + trashbin


pretty people at the opening...


spoof rainbow pop rockers The Jewish are neither gay nor jewish. hence the complete irony, eh? they were totally brilliant...


check the pleated khaki slacks. PERfect.


It's the shoes that make the man.


JAH DIVISION: a dub/reggae joy division cover band. no shit. complete with psychedelics and guest featuring the drummer from oneida.






There was a day spent going through the Chelsea galleries, and overall it was OK. Not fab, just OK, considering how overabundant the art is. Best shows: Atelier Van Lieshout's "Slave City" installation that consisted of fullscale and miniature model proposals for a call-center-slash-agrarian forced labor camp. So wrong it's gotta be right.


Slave City

A pretty great Alan McCollum installation of thousands of drawings and a few sculptures, but then again I'm a sucker for his work so of course I love it. Went to White Columns gallery where I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised--I interned there in 1994 and it was considering the young cutting edge nonprofit space, but it now feels like any other old gallery. Trevor Paglan (who teaches at my school) had an awesome photo-based show where he covertly surveilled and photographed secret CIA bases. It was an instance where I felt overtly political content was pulled off really successfully and melded with great presentation and aesthetics. I was also pleasantly surprised by a Williamsburg gallery that showed a young French artist's strange confection of fictional Bauhaus-meets-Native American hybrid sculptures and drawings. One thing's for sure, it was great to see a lot of art in one afternoon, but it makes me exasperated to see so much crap, too (and there was a lot of it).


Another entire afternoon was spent making the trek up to the Bronx Museum for the final run of the "Tropicalia" exhibition originating from the Tate Museum in London and featuring radical aesthetic and musical experiments by 1960s Brazilian artists in response to both political oppression and Western Modernism. I finally got to see the Lygia Clark "hoods" and appendages that I've only see reproduced and I was really impressed--I could have made the whole trip up just to see these. Same for Helio Oiticicas "Parangolas," which used geometric and abstracted shapes as carnaval outfits, and his "Eden" installation, looking like a cross between a favela shanty and a Modernist abstraction. Ran into my old friend Mads Lynnerup and curator Clara Kim there, which was nice...Mads got into grad school at Columbia so he had to say bye bye to Frisco. Our loss, really. He rocks.


Lygia Clark's work: sensorial hoods and apparatus.


hotel room shenanigans. for some reason i stopped taking pictures after the first few days...

It felt like everywhere I went I ran into folks I knew. Williamsburg especially is like SF's Mission district that way...Amazing how quickly places get built up and gentrified, too...ugh. Oh the irony of being able to have good restaurants and boutiques, eh?

Yes, there's more text to read if you wanna...


Went out with an old boyfriend, James, a few times and it was great to see him. Funny how after seven years some people don't change (and he says the same of me of course). James is great. It's awesome we could reconnect and pick up again on a friendship. I've had something like 50/50 luck with keeping connections with ex'es and in most cases it's because some horrible psychic shock fallout happened and everyone behaved quite badly. oops.

Met up with another old friend, Michael, who I hung out with in the Czech Republic (the town of Plasy) back in 1999 when we did a residency together and it was also fab to reminisce and find out what happened to all those damn crazy artists running around in the old communal, crumbling 12th Century monastery we inhabited for a while.

I think I did a month's worth of socializing and drinking in the span of five days. Funny why I'm tired! The social rundown includes: Reena, Cathy, Judy, James, Michael, Maureen, Erin, Mads, Clara, Arnold, Karen, Alex, Max, Tim, and a few other new friends, too--usually made with some type of alcoholic concoction in my hand of course. Wheeeeeeeeeee! And there were people I didn't get to catch up with due to lack of time: sorry Marty, Zoe, Jack, and Jeff!

I should have taken more pictures of course. I'm a putz. I need a better camera that I don't hate. I start off with good intentions and then it goes downhill from there...

Tomorrow I jump back into all the projects and work I left behind. Welcome back, dammit!

I FUCKING LOVE NEW YORK.

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NYC dispatch

Ahhhh! I am blogging from a divey hotel in NYC, in the West Village to be exact, a few blocks from Union Square, Parson's, and The New School. It's strangely awesome and really weird that this place has wireless internet access. Above is a photo of Times Square that no, I did not take, but I pretty much could have because it looks like this when I drove through it. And drive slowly through Midtown I did, in the back of a Supershuttle van that had to drop off seven people before me. Kids, never ever ever take Supershuttle from the JFK airport to Manhattan during rushhour with many other passengers who get to get dropped off before you for some reason. Lord!

Either way, fun times and it's great to be back in my generally old stomping grounds from my college years :)

Had dinner at Snackey's in Williamsburg, off Bedford on Grand St. with an old friend of mine earlier this evening. Damn, Williamsburg has gotten soooooo built up and is crawling with the young and the hip. It reminds me so much of how San Francisco's Mission district is now. I remember both places fifteen years ago and how different they were from how they are today...

Tomorrow to PS1 to get a gander of the show and meet the curators... ciao!

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ANTI-FACTORY BLOG SALE!

A small bunch of new Anti-Factory sweaters and tops are available for sale on this here blog! I have to bypass my actual internet storefront, sadly, since something is wrong with my server and I couldn't load the images (boo hoo). So we'll try the "old fashioned" way of internet selling. It's so 20th Century, no?

SO! Scroll down below to see new items for purchase and click on the "email me" link to let me know if you want to purchase the item. Tell me the name of the one you want and I'll invoice you via Paypal. Voila!

This will be the last bunch of handmade clothes I'll be posting before the new year. All sales made by Tuesday of next week will be shipped out in time for the Holiday season...

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==> Pink Dahlia Sweater

$88 +$6 shipping
SOLD!

SIZE: S/M
bust: 33" stretches to 38"
sleeves: 20
length: 22"

Unique top made from vintage and 100% recycled fabrics

Soft as a kitten! Pink lambswool sweater with a hint of angora and yoke of vintage 70s wool jersey print covered in gorgeous dark red flowers. Dramatic puffed shoulders and slightly cropped sleeves that end in cream cashmere cuffs and dark brown band. Two aqua decorative buttons at each cuff. Big floppy cowl neckline and will keep you toasty!

==> click on the link below to see more images!

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==> Neopolitan Sweater

$84 +$6 shipping
SOLD!

SIZE: M (L, too? check measurements!)
bust: 34" stretches to 40"
sleeves: 26"
banded waist: 36" stretches to 43
length: 22"

Unique top made from vintage and 100% recycled fabrics

Like a true confection! Stretchy dark brown cotton sweater top with a hint of lycra and topped off at the chest with pink lambswool/angora yoke. Turtleneck collar to keep you warm (brrrr!) and cream cashmere embellished "leaves" are sewn down on one side. A smattering of lovely vintage buttons are added, and it has cream lambswool cuffs adorned with square brown buttons.

==> click on the link below to see more images!

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==> Houndstooth La Femme Top

$82 +$6 shipping
SOLD!

SIZE: M
bust: 34" stretches to 38"
sleeves: 28 1/2"
length: 21 1/2"

Unique top made from vintage and 100% recycled fabrics

Ah, oui! C'est houndstooth...This top is made of cotton jersey with a hint of acrylic and has a yoke of pumpkin merino wool with white polkadots! Dramatic puffed shoulders and a grey jersey "funnel" shaped collar. Dark charcoal grey merino wool cuffs and aqua wool bands at the ends. Yellow decorative buttons top off the cuff--it's a great color combo all around!

==> click on the link below to see more images!

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==> Heidi Forest Top

$88 +$6 shipping
SOLD!

SIZE: S/M
bust: 32" stretches to 38"
sleeves: 22"
length: 21"

Unique top made from vintage and 100% recycled fabrics

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo! Made of a soft cotton jersey, this top is covered in little pine trees and bright red berries. Topped off with a light green acrylic/wool jersey, it has a delicate vintage doily sewn onto the chest. Two large red decorative buttons are at the center, and it has dramatically puffed shoulders. Long cuffs made of beige cotton and the tips are a lacey nylon fabric. A great mix of patterns and textures--perfect for layering!

==> click on the link below to see more images!

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==> Earthenware Sweater

$88 +$6 shipping
SOLD!

SIZE: S/M
bust: 33" stretches to 38"
sleeves: 22 1/2
length: 21 1/2"

Unique top made from vintage and 100% recycled fabrics

I love this color combo! Lightweight dark chocolate merino wool sweater with a yoke of printed earthy cotton jersey. The collar is pieced from olive merino wool with a red piece at one side embellished with yellow buttons. Dramatic puffed shoulders and long sleeves that end in green patterned cuffs and beige lambswool at the tips. A great mix of fabrics and textures!

==> click on the link below to see more images!

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==> Deep Red Dahlia Sweater

$88 +$6 shipping
SOLD!

SIZE: S/M
bust: 33" stretches to 38"
sleeves: 22 1/2
length: 21 1/2"

Unique top made from vintage and 100% recycled fabrics

Lightweight deep red (like brick red) merino wool sweater with a yoke of vintage 70s wool jersey print covered in gorgeous dark red flowers. Dramatic puffed shoulders and three-quarter length sleeves that end in dark charcoal grey merino wool cuffs. Neckline is pieced of merino wool and a single beige lambswool piece embellished with yellow buttons. Banded waist at bottom and great for layering!

==> click on the link below to see more images!

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==> Blue Dahlia Sweater

$88 +$6 shipping
SOLD!

SIZE: S/M
bust: 33" stretches to 38"
sleeves: 22 1/2
length: 21 1/2"

Unique top made from vintage and 100% recycled fabrics

I love this color combo! Lightweight rich blue merino wool sweater with a yoke of vintage 70s wool jersey print covered in gorgeous dark red flowers. Dramatic puffed shoulders and three-quarter length sleeves that end in light blue merino wool cuffs. Neckline is pieced of brown jersey and a single beige lambswool piece embellished with yellow buttons. Banded waist at bottom and great for layering!

==> click on the link below to see more images!

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PS1 exhibition: Altered, Stitched, and Gathered

Just got ahold of the press release for the exhibition I'm in at PS1 in NY...Come out and see it if you're in town! Oh, and no, my work has nothing to do with sewing or stitching. It's a three-channel video work that is a furthering of an earlier project "Body Double (Platoon)" from 2005. The new one adds two other Vietnam War movies that were actually shot in the Philippines--Hamburger Hill and Apocalypse Now--and turns them into silently moving frames of ambient landscape images. The final work is shown on three 26" flat-screen LCD monitors mounted to the wall. It took me way longer than I thought to finish the work, but it's DONE and I shipped out the DVDs yesterday :) So happy, yes I am!


EXHIBITION PRESS RELEASE

"ALTERED, STITCHED AND GATHERED"
December 14, 2006 - January 22, 2007
Opening reception Thursday, December 14, 2006

(Long Island City, NY – October 27, 2006) P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is pleased to present Altered, Stitched and Gathered, an exhibition that brings together artists exploring or transforming familiar objects and social practices through a deliberate methodology. The exhibition, curated and produced entirely by the museum’s assistant staff, is on view in the Third Floor Main Galleries from December 14, 2006 through January 22, 2007.

Each artist utilizes a step-by-step production process. Be it implied, seemingly spontaneous, or unnervingly rigorous – each leads to outcomes that range from the humorous to the politically charged. Though their methods vary, they stem from similar sensibilities – the serial formalism of Conceptual art and the calculated yet DIY nature of 1960s Fluxus practices.

Commenting on the intended uses of the original and how it was produced, the works in the exhibition question accepted notions of practicality and impracticality, recollection and fabrication. Early examples exploring these themes, such as Yoko Ono’s poetic instructional work and Ben Vautier’s inventive musical composition, are presented with more recent work. Included are Serkan Özkaya’s hand-rendered newspaper covers; corporate logos arranged in Moorish patterns by Gunilla Klingberg; Cornelia Parker’s steamrolled and suspended silverware; and Shinique Smith’s site-specific installation of clothing and fabric. Artists also include Ai Weiwei, Ann Böttcher, Vija Celmins, Jacob Dahlgren, Tom Friedman, Sharon Hayes, Subodh Gupta, Emily Jacir, Guillermo Kuitca, Dinh Q. Le, Li Songsong, Rä di Martino, Ola Pehrson, Ted Riederer, Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, Paul Salveson, Stephanie Syjuco, Jacques Villegle, and David Wojnarowicz.

“We have temporarily given the reins of power to the next generation,” says P.S.1 founding Director Alanna Heiss. “P.S.1 has a long history of offering opportunities to young and emerging artists. With Altered, Stitched and Gathered, this tradition is extended to young talent within the institution with each junior staff member taking on the role of his or her senior counterpart, developing every aspect of the show.”

Altered, Stitched and Gathered is organized by Christopher Y. Lew, Erica Papernik, and Elna Svenle with Jelena Kristic as project director.

PS1 website here

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