Aug 16 - Sep 15, 2024: BORN A PROBLEM at YBCA
Aug 16 - Sep 15 | Wed - Sun | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
at YBCA
701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103
*** Free Admission, Open to Public ***
[ Click to RSVP ]
Join the Opening Celebration of “Art, Action, Change” Creative Corps Group Show on Aug 16th at YBCA, where BORN A PROBLEM will be presented alongside other artworks by Bay Area artists.
With support from the California Arts Council, YBCA provided 48 Bay Area artists with a living wage, supporting them while they worked on projects in service of their communities. Each artist identified a nonprofit and issue area, and led a year-long project to inspire and uplift their communities.
Known as the Creative Corps Initiative, these artists worked within these four thematic areas:
• Civic engagement
• Climate justice
• Community health and wellness
• Social justice
From Congolese dance classes to youth-led murals, discover the intersection of art, action, and community empowerment from Aug 16th to Sep 15th at YBCA.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
In 1965, a CIA-aided military coup marked the beginning of a tumultuous period in Indonesia. The new authoritarian government, perceiving a "Chinese Problem," initiated a series of anti-Chinese policies from 1967-2000: Chinese language names barred on official documents, Chinese language media and schools shuttered, while public celebrations of cultural festivals such as Chinese New Year were banned.
These exclusionist and forced assimilation laws, echoing the Indian Treaties & the Removal Act, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Immigration Act of 1924 in the United States, fostered resentment and discrimination that led to massacres and sexual violence against the Indonesian Chinese community in 1965 and 1998.
This multimedia exhibition by artist Paula Te and writer Edward Gunawan (who are both of Chinese Indonesian descent) takes the form of erasure poems based on actual laws from this dark chapter of history. The interactive installation contains the context behind the redacted text, revealed through augmented reality (AR) to investigate the invisible historical forces that impact present-day culture, society, politics–and ultimately, our sense of personal flourishing and communal belonging.
BORN A PROBLEM was previously displayed as a solo exhibition at the Gray Area in San Francisco, CA as part of the United States of Asian America Festival by APICC and “From the Margins” group show at The Fishbowl in Seattle, WA.
Join our other gathering during the month-long exhibition:
Check out our other gatherings:
with facilitator Anand Vedawala