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June 10, 2007-December 2, 2007
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Condensation:
Generation
1.5 is an exhibition of the work of eight artists who
emigrated in their teenage years. The term "generation
1.5" is used in some communities to describe those who
are neither adult immigrants nor American born -- the
in-between generation of people who moved from one country to
another between the ages of 12 and 18. Already undergoing
physical and intellectual change during these formative years,
1.5 generation individuals also experience a change in
context, in language, in culture. The premise of the
exhibition is that the relationship of a 1.5 artist to their
adopted country is different than that of a person who
immigrated when they were much younger or older. Generation
1.5 is curated by Executive Director of the Queens Museum of
Art, Tom Finkelpearl and Chief Curator, Valerie Smith. The
exhibition will be on view at the Queens Museum of Art from
June 10, 2007-December 2, 2007. The participating artists are:
Ellen Harvey, Pablo Helguera, Emily Jacir, Lee Mingwei, Shirin
Neshat, Seher Shah, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Nari Ward.
Some
of the issues surrounding the 1.5 generation center on
immigration, cultural dislocation and memory, hybridity,
acceptance, exile and perhaps a certain type of transgression:
critique of their native country or their adopted country, a
freedom to be revolutionary or assimilated in both places.
However, these issues are not explicitly addressed in all the
works. In some cases, they are subtly implied. Generation 1.5
is a term that is contested and defined differently by
sociologists, but the curators have taken the meaning that
they first heard in Queens - those who came between the ages
of 12 and 18. While many of the artists are classic
"1.5ers" who came in their teen years, others
traveled extensively throughout their lives. With the
exception of Ellen Harvey's, A Whitney for the Whitney at
Philip Morris/Altria or I Can Be An American Visionary Too!
(2003) all the works are new, reworked or
never-before-exhibited in New York.
In
lieu of a traditional exhibition publication, the museum is
building a website as the foundation for a post-exhibition
catalogue. This site will run throughout the course of the
exhibition; it is intended to generate thoughtful debate, from
artists and non-artists alike, on the influence that being 1.5
may or may not have on artistic practice. Sociologists
Patricia Fernandez-Kelly of Princeton University, Philip
Kasinitz of Hunter College Graduate Center and Pyong Gap Min
of Queens College and Graduate Center will contribute to
discussions on the site. Conversations are planned between
artist Shirin Neshat, filmmaker Shoja Ajari and Associate
Director of the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at
NYU, Shiva Balaghi and also between Ellen Harvey and her
sister, the poet Matthea Harvey. Essays about the artists will
also be included: Olu Oguibe, Associate Professor of art and
African American studies at the University of Connecticut,
will be writing about Nari Ward and Hubertus Breuer, a German
science journalist based in New York, will contribute a piece
about Lee Mingwei. In addition, curators Valerie Smith and Tom
Finkelpearl conducted an interview with artist Rirkrit
Tiravanija and participated in a roundtable discussion with
Shirin Neshat, Ellen Harvey, Lee Mingwei, Seher Shah, and
Shazia Sikander. The website, http://queensmuseum.blogspot.com/,
will be launched on June 10th and will also be accessible from
the museum's website.
Ellen
Harvey was born in the U.K. and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin
as a teenager. A Whitney for the Whitney at Philip Morris/Altria
or I Can Be An American Visionary Too! (2003) combines
selected works from the Whitney Museum's contemporary
collection with scaled replicas of the works from the 2001
collection catalog American Visionaries. The images in
Harvey's artist-as-curator endeavor are hand-copied and rebuff
traditional art historical practice (they are arranged
alphabetically by artist).
Pablo
Helguera was born in Mexico City and has lived in Chicago and
Barcelona. His piece, Everything in Between (2007), is a
newly-commissioned, multi-media installation that functions as
an autobiographical novel. Based on a kunstlerroman-a novel in
which the protagonist undergoes an artistic evolution-Helguera's
installation depicts a 4-year transition (1988-1992) in 20
explanatory chapters and will soon be accompanied by the book
The Boy Inside the Lettern.
Artist
Emily Jacir was born in 1970, raised in Saudi Arabia and
attended High School in Rome, Italy. In linz diary (2003),
Jacir explores the complexities of surveillance by inserting
herself into the frame of one of the Austrian city's multiple
webcams. Thus, she asserts herself as a resident of both this
space and the global network of images residing in unknown
locations.
Lee
Mingwei initially emigrated from Taiwan to the Dominican
Republic, spent summers in a Chan monastery and attended High
School in California. In his piece, Quartet Project
(2005/2007), the visitor's movement dictates how much or how
little of Antoine's Dvorak's American String Quartet in F, Op.
96 can be seen or heard as the gallery space transforms into
an audio-visual mechanism of desire and frustration.
Shirin
Neshat moved from Iran to the United States to attend high
school. Her piece, The Last Word (2004), is a DVD projection
depicting the interrogation/condemnation of an artist and her
threat to the bureaucratic establishment. The Last Word (2004)
relates to the Iranian intellectual's struggle for freedom of
expression.
Pakistan-born
artist Seher Shah moved to London and Brussels and attended
High School in New York City. In Shah's The Jihad Pop
Progression Series (2006/2007), layered motifs derived from
architectural references and religious imagery interact within
iconic Islamic spaces such as the interior courtyard. These
energized realms are at once utopian and nostalgic.
Born
in Argentina to a Thai family, Rirkrit Tiravanija moved to
Thailand, Malaysia and Ethiopia before attending High School
in Ottawa, Canada. His work speaks directly to these changing
contexts and the mobility he has experienced since youth. The
third in an edition of four, Untitled 2006, (passport 3)
documents his extensive travels since the production of the
prior passport. Each one of Tiravanija's hand-painted
passports is meticulously composed and unique to a particular
time and context of his life. Nari
Ward emigrated from Jamaica to Brooklyn at the age of twelve.
His multimedia installation, Salvage Research Soul Training
(2007), includes wheelchair puppeteers, an explorative video
of movements conceived by dancer/choreographer Ralph Lemon and
an oversized parrot puppet capable of reciting a litany of
quotes, statistics, official pronouncements, and personalized
reflections. Ward's piece explores notions of vulnerability,
dependency, anticipation and resilience.
5. The Route, 2006
(duration: 16mins / 45secs)
ORGANIZATION
AND SUPPORT：
1.5
is made possible with funding generously provided by the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss
Foundation, Crystal Windows and Door Systems, Ltd., the
Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan, R.O.C. in Collaboration
with Taipei Cultural Center, TECO in New York, the New York
State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs.
Queens
Museum of Art
New
York City Building Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens, NY
11368-3398 The
Museum's hours are: Wednesday - Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00
p.m.,
Saturday
and Sunday: 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Admission
to the Museum is by suggested donation: $5 for adults, $2.50
for seniors, students and children, and free for member and
children under 5. For general visitor information, please
visit the Museum's website www.queensmuseum.org
or call 718.592.9700 Contact： Krista
N. Saunders 718-592-9700 x221 ksaunders@queensmuseum.org
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