"Woman Laughing In Indiana," Ridge Avenue and Tenth Street. Photo from artmostfierce.blogspot.com.

Rewind 10 years: Zoe Strauss is given a Canon Rebel, the tool to finally start creating the beast of an installation she has been envisioning for years. Hoping to transform the space under I-95—which has itself transformed Strauss’s South Philly neighborhood—and to capture the changes over time that this community has undergone, Strauss set up ten annual exhibitions under the highway, with prints for sale of the many Philadelphians she’s taken portraits of, and prints of the many places in the city and elsewhere she has found inspiration.

Fast forward to January 14th, 2012: Questlove is performing at the 10 Years opening to a crowd that can’t quite believe they’re at a PMA reception. Waiting in line to get your photos taken at the party booth, you only wish your prom had been this cool, complete with fabulous Conestoga Angels drum line performances.

Zoe Strauss in office.

Fast forward about ten days: I’m sitting on the floor with Strauss during her office hours eating chips and asking about the three paintings around us. Back to that “what the hell” portrait behind Strauss of a young man with dark hair and a wine colored scarf who glances backwards at the viewer. She forgets on the spot who it’s by and admits she doesn’t even necessarily like the painting that much. She simply embraced the chance to keep looking at it in her office and perhaps figure out its intrigue. This small painting exudes a mystery that I pick up from Strauss’s more abstract work, in addition to her shots of empty storefronts and faded signage and graffiti. Trying to understand any messages behind these images, I ask Strauss if they’re piecing together a mixed-up urban poetry to match the social landscape she’s imagined for us. She tells me the messages are “open and available for repurposing.” Just as Strauss converted expanses under I-95—not unlike the FDR skate park and Boat People guerrilla farmers’ markets continue to do in similar expanses—she’s moved on to repurpose commercial billboard space. These works on the billboards tell “an epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life”—Strauss’s words.

While the billboards evoke the Love Letter series of murals by Steve Powers, which Strauss was a champion and documentarian of, the billboards’ likely fate in a few months is to turn into a new string of tasteless ads for Delilah’s. Their inevitable evolution mimics the mutability—intrinsic to Strauss’s work—of signifiers, community, and individuals. One empowering adoption of a mutable image, “We Will Win,” represents a very specific and deeply personal sentiment of AIDS advocates over the past 30 years. Strauss confirmed that the repurposing of her visual message in the Witness exhibition that long-time friend David Acosta did at the Asian Arts Initiative perfectly represents her willingness to let her photos’ messages reincarnate many times over. Not enough can be written about the impact of Strauss’s work, which resonates with Philadelphians today, but which has the power to reach communities other artists and institutions can’t and won’t.

Zoe with Alice Neel's "Last Sickness"

Turn around: The Alice Neel painting behind me features the face of the elderly woman in a patchwork bathrobe which must read differently by everyone from the public who has visited Strauss in her office (PMA Director Timothy Rub’s satellite office, which he gave to Strauss for the duration of her exhibition). She takes a moment as we’re talking to admire the complexity of emotions expressed by the woman in “Last Sickness,” which, not unlike her work, is up to the viewer’s interpretation, subject to multiple reads, and void of pedantic descriptions.

Cello music sounds faintly down the hall, and I ask Strauss about the fate of the Megawords room where I waited before entering her office, and where Philadelphia Orchestra’s Hai-Ye Ni, propping her cello against plush pillows on the ground, is practicing for the afternoon show.

Hai-Ye Ni in Megawords

The Megawords installation runs kitty-corner to her retrospective, and like the artist’s office hours, serves as a new programming model for the PMA. Visitors from 10 Years and Van Gogh mill in and out of the installation wondering “what the hell” happened to the “scary,” old ATM/phone booth dug-outs. Megawords, “an experimental media project,” raises eyebrows with an explosion of photos, zines, chalkboard, and publications for sale in the tiny alcoves. Megawords also seeks to document the “ongoing narrative” of urban life with their installations and concurrent events.

Hai-Ye Ni in Megawords

Fast forward ten more years? Strauss makes no predictions for what will become of the new spaces—possibly now with chip crumbs in the carpets!—created for her exhibition inside the PMA and all over the city. My hope is that this wonderful experiment (please, include more dance parties!) produces many more experiments in its wake. Philly deserves thought-provoking and purely awesome “what the hell” moments for many more than ten years to come.

Joan Mitchell Foundation grants
The Joan Mitchell Foundation announced its 2011 Painters and Sculptors Grant Program recipients — 25 artists who will each receive $25,000. Among the winners are Philadelphians Virgil Marti, Jackie Tileston, and former Philly artist Anabeth Rosen.  Congratulations!

Here’s the full list:
Diana Al-Hadid, Brooklyn, NY
Nicole Awai, Brooklyn, NY
Keith Benjamin, Cleves, OH
William Cordova, Miami, FL
Cicely Cottingham, West Orange, NJ
Florine Demosthene, Brooklyn, NY
Daniel Douke, Fallbrook, CA
Julie Green, Corvallis, OR
Tommy Hartung, Ridgewood, NY
Janelle Iglesias, Provincetown, MA
Gary Kachadourian, Baltimore, MD
Simone Leigh, Brooklyn, NY
Andrew Lenaghan, Brooklyn, NY
Anne Lindberg, Kansas City, MO
Virgil Marti, Philadelphia, PA
Liz Miller, Good Thunder, MN
Jiha Moon, Atlanta, GA
Catherine Murphy, Poughkeepsie, NY
Sarah Oppenheimer, New York, NY
Kanishka Raja, New York, NY
Duke Riley, Brooklyn, NY
Chemi Rosado-Seijo, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Annabeth Rosen, Davis, CA
Jackie Tileston, Philadelphia, PA
Sarah Walker, Brooklyn, NY

Artblog.net returns after hiatus
Franklin Einspruch’s Artblog.net began posting again in mid-December after a 20-month hiatus and complete technical overhaul. We’re glad to welcome them back to the blogosphere, and excited to see what 2012 holds in store for them!

BYO Print celebration and new members

BYO Print welcomes new member Chad Lassin, a new space, and new equipment with its New Beginnings Party on New Year’s Day from 1 – 5 PM.

Toast with a Ghost @ Powel House
The historic Powel House will hold a New Year’s Toast with a Ghost event on Saturday, December 31. The 75-minute tours will begin at 8 PM and include a candlelight ghost tour of the Powel House and Physick House and a champagne “Toast with a Ghost”. Some may be critical of using historical locations for such events, but it’s all in good fun – and educational too.

Whitney Biennial List for 2012 leaked…and now announced by the museum
Thanks to ADA Gallery for passing on the Huff Post article about the leaked list of Whitney Biennial 2012 artists (including George Kuchar of their gallery), however we also see there are no Philadelphia names…And now the Whitney has officially announced the list.  Looks like the same list to us….still no Philadelphia names.

Kai Althoff, Thom Andersen, Charles Atlas, Lutz Bacher, Forrest Bess (paintings selected by artist Robert Gober), Michael Clark, Dennis Cooper and Gisèle Vienne, Cameron Crawford, Moyra Davey, Liz Deschenes, Nathaniel Dorsky, Nicole Eisenman, Kevin Jerome Everson, Vincent Fecteau, Andrea Fraser, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Vincent Gallo, K8 Hardy, Richard Hawkins, Werner Herzog, Jerome Hiler, Matt Hoyt, Dawn Kasper, Mike Kelley, John Kelsey, John Knight, Jutta Koether, George Kuchar, Laida Lertxundi, Kate Levant, Sam Lewitt, Joanna Malinowska, Andrew Masullo, Nick Mauss, Richard Maxwell, Sarah Michelson, Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran, Laura Poitras, Matt Porterfield, Luther Price, Lucy Raven, The Red Krayola, Kelly Reichardt, Elaine Reichek, Michael Robinson, Georgia Sagri, Michael E. Smith, Tom Thayer, Wu Tsang, Oscar Tuazon, and Frederick Wiseman.

Helen Frankenthaler passing

Helen Frankenthaler, "Small Paradise".

The innovative abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler passed away on December 27 at the age of 83. Her family released a statement about her death but did not provide an exact cause.

Purchase a piece of Miss Rockaway Armada

Miss Rockaway Armada on display at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

Run over to the Philadelphia Art Alliance for your chance to get a piece of Miss Rockaway Armada! The show at PAA ends on December 30, but on January 3 from 10 AM until 2 PM visitors can stop by to find pieces that interest them, make an offer, and take it away with them – one more way to help recycle the Armada’s materials.

Opportunities

Asian Arts Initiative is seeking artists and ideas for its new Social Practice Lab. Proposals for programs to enliven the areas of Chinatown and Chinatown North are due by January 18, and more information is available here.

Scope New York 2012 has (via Wooloo.org) an open call for emerging artists–all mediums. Winner gets a solo booth at Scope New York.  The application deadline is December 31, so there isn’t much time left! You can find the application here.

Artist News
Tiger Strikes Asteroid member Alexis Granwell is in the International Print Center’s New Prints show in New York. The show runs Jan. 28-Mar. 24.

Videographer and friend of artblog David Kessler is sharing some clips of his upcoming video project Pines: A cinematic exploration of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. You can find one of the preview clips here: Pines Video Sketch – Day Five, Harrisville. Check it out–it’s beautiful!

Merián Soto performs a Branch Dance. Photo by Pepon Osorio.

Merián Soto/Performance Practice will be presenting the winter performance of her one-year cycle Wissahickon Reunion on Sunday January 15, at 10:30 AM at Bluebell Meadow. Visit the blog for more info and up-to-the-minute updates.

Jeffrey Stockbridge is featured in the online LPV Magazine for his photo series Kensington Blues, which deals with the woes of the North Philadelphia area that is a hot spot for drugs and prostitution.

Inscrutable, an exhibition happening concurrently at the Asian Arts Initiative and the University of Delaware at the Crane, explores issues facing Asian artists such as globalization and multiculturalism.

Ken Chu. Channeling Andy: A process-based work. 2005-06. Chinese Arts Centre. Manchester, UK.

The first piece to the left of the doorway as visitors enter the Asian Arts Initiative is a digital slide show documenting a group project orchestrated by Ken Chu – “Channeling Andy: A process-based work.” The artist in his statement explains that he intentionally chose a skill that he did not know for his post-minimalist work, and that he wanted to reference the social network of Andy Warhol’s factory. Ken Chu assembled a group of knitters and together they recycled plastic bags by turning them into yarn, which would then become a material used in making his mixed-media paintings. The plastic yarn was knitted by the group into sleeves that fit over Chu’s rectangular, monochromatic paintings. The finished pieces are formally beautiful and show the endless possibilities organic forms have to offer.

Since the process of making the work is the focus of “Channeling Andy,” showing a slide show of the works in progress is very effective. The learning, encouragement, and sharing of ideas that went on during this project is made apparent to the viewers. However, it would be helpful to see one of the finished pieces next to the slide show in order to get a better understanding of how effective the pieces were in terms of materials and formal ideas, as well as the contrast between the texture of the plastic yarn and the smooth texture of the paint.

Barbara Takenaga. Black/White/Blue. Acrylic on linen. 54" x 45" 2008.

Barbara Takenaga’s “Black/White/Blue” is an acrylic painting that is 54″ x 45″ and covered in an intricate spiral pattern consisting of hundreds of circles that grow larger as the spiral reaches out towards the edges of the linen on which it is painted. The board was first given a white background. Blue, black, and red circles were painted on top, along with various lines that help to articulate the order of the spiral. Only a few small circles in a selected area are red and that made me wonder if there is a certain significance to these circles – perhaps the artist had a particular system she was following when it came to coloring the circles.

The immense size of the work completely surrounds viewers with the pattern and throws them off balance. This type of artwork allows the viewer to get an idea of the great amount of time and physical effort the artist put into the piece. Time and effort does not automatically make a work great – but the attention to detail, color choices, composition, and optical illusions that went into this piece make it very effective. It would be even better to see this work done in oil paint, since color plays such an important role here. The matte, plastic quality that acrylic paint has may not always work well for these intricate, abstract paintings.

Jinming Dong. I want to talk: 1956. Video Installation. 2010.

Also included in the show is a video art piece by Jinming Dong titled “I Want to Talk: 1956”. The video, which is in both venues, consists of a computer animated Chairman Mao giving a speech to the National Association of Music Workers and some other comrades in Beijing on August 24, 1956, which Dong translated to English. The projected video shows Mao, dressed in his traditional grey suit, from the shoulders up. The colors are vibrant, like those you would see in an animated film, as opposed to the colors of a film from 1956.

At the Asian Arts Initiative, this video is projected towards the top of the wall to give the feeling that the viewer is looking up at Chairman Mao. The piece puts the viewer in a subordinate position – he/she is below Mao and the image of Mao is larger then life. Since the artist chose to create an animated Chairman Mao instead of showing real footage of him, the piece made me think of George Orwell’s Big Brother.

Due to the nature of the exhibition, the artwork varies greatly. As such, it would be helpful to see the materials and sizes of the pieces included on their title cards. Nevertheless, the work is tied together by its connection to Asian culture. Some pieces reference Asian culture and stereotypes directly, while others use geometric forms or philosophical approaches that connect to the artists’ heritage. The part of the exhibition at the Asian Arts Initiative had some strong and engaging pieces, but felt sparse. Perhaps some of the works could have been eliminated so that they all fit in one location.

The Asian Arts Initiative, located at 1219 Vine Street, is more than a gallery space – it also puts on musical performances, theatrical performances, and workshops for all ages. The exhibition runs through February 26 with a closing reception occurring at the Asian Arts Initiative on Friday, February 4 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.

Chao-chang Lee creating Table of Buddha in the peaceful pine tree grove

As I wended my way along the paths, passing by intriguing sculptures for still another environmental art exhibit, I came upon Tim Allen, resting on a bench. Allen is the husband of Jane Ingram Allen, the curator of Go Green.

Curator Jane Ingram Allen and her husband Tim at SCEE

Tim and I talked as we walked along the path toward the working artists. We talked about the different attitudes toward time in Taiwan, where productivity is sacrificed for social relations, he said. And we talked about the American passion for possessions. He and Jane have been living more sparely in Taiwan for six years, staying on there after her Fulbright for studying paper-making techniques.

We found artist Chao-chang Lee on his hands and knees in a grove of pine trees, carefully sifting through the carpet of dry needles on the forest floor for broken branches. “I am sick,” he said, and the art work was calming for him. I saw no sign of sickness, and perhaps something got lost in translation.

Lee was creating an outline drawing on the ground of an enormous, seated Buddha–maybe 25 feet tall and equally wide at the knees. “It started at 300 centimeters [about 10 feet] but now it’s huge!” The branches create the perimeter. “Everything is Buddha,” said Lee.

Chao-chang Lee working on his installation at SCEE. The branches (right and rear) outline the shape of a seated Buddha

The site-specific piece Table of Buddha is a shrine as well as a retreat, a place to offer food to the Buddha before consuming it. Lee said that houses in Taiwan, there is a room for Buddha, and on his table every day, the residents array flowers and food, then eat the food at night. And that’s the plan for the Saturday (Aug. 7) reception at SCEE–welcoming people to bring food for the Buddha and then sharing in it. When I sat down Indian-style on the forest floor with Lee, who was kneeling, pointed out I was sitting in the same style as the Buddha!

Chao-chang means sunrise house, and like the day, the artist’s work is transitory. “Inspiration can’t hold forever,” he said. This show is also transitory, open until August 20 in Philadelphia, Then moving on for a month in Eureka, California and a couple of weeks at the University of North Carolina. The show has already been at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, NY.

Ingram Allen said that until recently Taiwanese art focused largely on the issue of Taiwanese identity–what it means to be Chinese and not Chinese. So dominant was this issue, as well as the culture’s commitment to technology, that that environmental art is a recent development there.

I asked Lee about his studio. He lives in a very small house, taking care of his parents, who are getting old. He had no real studio. Then he said, “I have different houses in the earth.” And there he was, sitting in his newest one at SCEE.

Ping-yu Pan beginning to assemble her Ark for Plants

Ingram Allen took me farther along the path to meet artist Ping-yu Pan, a professor in Taipei, who was lashing together branches to create a boat-shaped fence around a sapling. She said she was protecting the sapling from the ravenous deer. “[The boat] is the Ark for Plants, inspired by Noah’s ark,” she said. She mused a bit about the similarities in Asian and Western myths and Joseph Campbell’s ideas of archetypal myths. “We also have a flood.”

“Making art work is not just about yourself,” she said, adding that she hoped the work would maybe give someone else a new idea, or comfort people and give them a happy day.

Tim Prentice, Yellow Zinger, a kinetic sculpture using wind power

These next two weeks are the only opportunity to see not just the two Asian installations, which exude a sense of stillness and place, but also six sculptures in the “elemental energy: art powered by nature” show. The works are gizmos that harness natural forces. The yellow plastic paddles of Yellow Zinger, By Tim Prentice (CT), respond to the wind, creating a snaky drawing that wiggles with the wind. And Joe Chirchirillo (VT) has made a sort of tin-roofed shed onto which water splashes. I didn’t see or hear the water splashing and I’m unclear on how its is harnessing a natural force, but I love the Rube Goldbergian, jury-rigged frontier building that is a nostalgic shout-out to American ingenuity and survival. Other works include a couple of solar-powered sound pieces, one by Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito (NY) and one by Patrick Marold (CO); and a couple of other kinetic sculptures, one by Mark Malmberg (CA) that’s solar powered, and one by Moto Ohtake (CA), that’s wind-powered.

Joe Chirchirillo, Rain Machine, which looks like a cross between an old oil rig and a farm outbuilding

A second part of Go Green show is opening tomorrow at the Asian Arts Initiative. The event will include a discussion with the two Taiwanese artists, the curator and Mary Salvante, who is the advising director of SCEE’s environmental art program. The AAI exhibit documents other Taiwanese environmental art installations as well. Go Green, in all its permutations and venues, includes the work of 16 artists and marks an important new stream of art from Taiwan.

Go Green, Fri., Aug. 6, opening reception and discussion at the AAI. 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Go Green, Saturday, August 7, 3 p.m. – 5 p.m., SCEE. Guided tours of the exhibit’s outdoor installations; Chao-chang Lee and Pin-yu Pan will discuss their works.

elemental energy: art powered by nature, May 1 – Sept. 26 at SCEE.

'Muralmorphosis' by Eve Biddle and Scott Frankel, September, 2009

'Muralmorphosis' by Bonnie Brenda Scott (with assistance),September, 2009

The screening was at basekamp and while I was searching for the correct doorway I ran into three students from the Asian Arts Initiative (below) who were also looking for the event.

Sean Stoops at the film viewing, December 12, 2009, basekamp

Linda Saroeun, Suny Uy and Ratha Chea at film screening

The mural (which I missed, I’m afraid) was painted by Eve Biddle, Joshua Frankel, Bonnie Brenda Scott and Mauro Zamora, and rather than collaborate on developing and executing one design the artists painted over one another’s work so the mural evolved over the two weeks of the festival.

'Muralmorphosis' by Eve Biddle, Joshua Frankel, Bonnie Brenda Scott and Mauro Zamora

'Muralmorphosis' by Eve Biddle, Joshua Frankel, Bonnie Brenda Scott and Mauro Zamora

The film is incredibly witty, lively and fun; quite the opposite of the proverbial watching paint dry.  It was edited by Frankel and directed by Stoops with a score composed from the music of Planet Y with Charles Cohen and Yanni Papadopoulos.  Sean told me he’s entering it in upcoming film festivals, so watch for it!  It’s as good as any film on art that I’ve seen.

Hiro Sakaguchi and Anne Camfield at film screening

Joe Fig ‘Inside the Painter’s Studio’

I was sent a copy of Inside the Painter’s Studio (ISBN 978-1-56898-852-8), which I’ve been dipping into slowly.  It’s a perfect book to read short bits of at a time – hence when your reading time must be grabbed between other responsibilities.  Fig is an artist who’s created a series of miniature representations of other artist’s studios in obsessive detail, down to the last, squeezed tube of paint.  I saw an exhibition of his amazing work at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach some years ago.  Most of the constructions are 8 or 9.5 inches high, although the largest reach 4 feet.

Chuck Close in his New York City studio, all photos © Joe Fig

April Gornick’s New York City studio

In researching the project he had many conversations with the artists and at some point realized that they were worth recording.  The 24 artists range from the renowned to the little-known and cover three generations. Fig developed a series of questions, mostly about the studio itself and the artist’s working habits, so that he asked more or less the same information of everyone.  And each of the interviews is accompanied by numerous pictures of the studio and preceded by Fig’s miniature version.

Ryan McGuinness in his New York City studio

detail of Joan Snyder’s Brooklyn studio

It’s a wonderful book for artists and for anyone who’s a voyeur of other people’s work spaces.  For art historians, collectors or other art lovers it has the same appeal as paintings that show studio spaces: it brings us closer to the artists and hints at their working habits. Some studios resemble industrial spaces while others have a domestic feel.  One artist lines up paint tubes like toy soldiers and another assembles chaotic arrays.  We get to see the photos, post cards and ephemera that artists tack to their bulletin boards.  It’s a secondhand intimacy, but seductive nonetheless.

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Nadia Hironaka, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, video projection. Giant, chopsticks manipulated by a disembodied hand withdraws cultural icons from a Chinese food container.

Nadia Hironaka’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, is visible only after dark, on the window of the Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine Street. It is part of Asian Arts’ second Chinatown In/flux exhibition, this one subtitled Future Landscapes. This outing, there are four (or six, depending on who’s counting–two of them are matched pairs of a sort) public art projects scattered around the Chinatown neighborhood.

Nadia Hironaka, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, video projection.

Hironaka’s piece celebrates the Asian presence in America and the cross-fertilization of the two cultures–American Pop billboard meets spare Asian crockery decoration. The video is like watching 1000 clowns emerge from a VW bug. A giant hand uses chopsticks to pick Asian cultural icons out of a Chinese food take-out container while Western cultural icons rain down from off camera (at least that’s where I came in on the video loop). The symbolic cultural exchange ranges from Heinz ketchup bottles to mah jongg tiles, and the logic magically shifts so what rains down or emerges from the box can be Asian or American. Off to the side, a group of ambiguous, silhouetted figures group, ungroup, regroup–people too flat to reveal their ethnic identities (unless you happen to know who’s who).

The image is luminous, beautiful and endlessly pleasing and engaging. It can deliver a quick hit for people driving by yet a slow unfolding of ideas for anyone who slows down to watch.

The other pieces in the exhibit are:

Jonathan and Kimberly Stemler, the little red string. The paper lanterns illuminating the dark tunnel beneath the viaduct are inscribed with personal stories from community members describing their connection with the night sky. I did not see the inscriptions.

the little red string is a group of paper lanterns illuminating the archway under the old Reading Railroad viaduct at Carlton Street, between 11th and 12th. I bumped into the artists, Jonathan and Kimberly Stemler, the night I was trying to follow my Chinatown In/flux map, and they drove me to their installation. The lanterns celebrate the expansion of Chinatown north of Vine Street. This is right across the street from Where Vox, Copy and Tiger Strikes Asteroid galleries are located, but I didn’t notice the lights when I walked out the door there Friday night. I must have been studying my toes, because it is visible, and it does make the otherwise invisible archway of the viaduct have a noir presence at night. Hey, who doesn’t like lights? But I say, let’s get more of them and go for broke.

Just like Hironaka and the Stemler pieces are only good at night, the other two are really for daytime.

Chinatown Orange–one of the multi-part pieces–is first of all a parking lot at 10th and Vine coated with Glidden’s Chinatown Orange paint. There’s related work at the AAI. Since I was walking around at night, I couldn’t see the orange paint on the lot, nor was I able to find any signs in the dark.

I learned this from Sean Stoops, who oversaw the installation process:

We have a temp. sign on the fence west of the lot. The outdoor
painting was completed last weekend as an art happening. We are negotiating with the lot owners about more permanent signage thru August.

The artists, Kikuchi + Liu, are marking the site where the future Chinatown Community Center will rise. Unless you’re in on that and understand the paint color choice, the work is quite mysterious.

The piece Visionary Sightseeing Binoculars, by Rebecca Hackemann, overlooks the Vine Street Expressway at 10th and 12th streets (that’s two versions of the binoculars). Instead of viewing the Statue of Liberty when you gaze in, by turning a crank you get to see small stereoscopic drawings by children as well as other kinds of images of Chinatown past and plans envisioning Chinatown future (and specifically the expressway). I always like interactive cranks and stereoscopes, and I like that I could almost see well enough even at night, thanks to the lights of the cars on the expressway. However,  drawings are a come-down from the promise of  a telescopic view.

So seeing all four pieces at once is impossible, but it’s up until Aug. 2, 2009, so you have plenty of time to go once by day, once by night. For a map of where to find the art, stop by Asian Arts Initiative.

We all have some dreamy idea of a Cheers kind of life in a single town where everyone knows your name. But that doesn’t take into account the non-stop migrations around the world–people fleeing war or famine or hardship–or boredom.

Around 15 years ago, I learned that a bunch of ancient bodies were unearthed in China–all fair-haired people wearing tartans.

Siona Benjamin, Joseph, gouache and gold leaf on museum board, 22 x 17 inches, 2006.

And last night a tragedy in Philadelphia’s Liberian community was in the news.

So a couple of shows now on exhibition about the immigrant experience are updates of an old story, but each retelling occurs in the latest cultural context and is current because people are always on the move.

One is a group of paintings by a migrant from Bombay, Siona Benjamin, at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, at Rodeph Shalom on North Broad Street.

And the other is a group show, including paintings, installation and videos at two venues–the Asian Arts Initiative and International House.

They both gave me plenty to chew over.

Siona Benjamin channels Bollywood movie posters and other pop sources for this personal–and political–statement. The pokey things all around the frame of this one are little plastic toy soldiers.

Benjamin, who is originally from India’s Bene Israel Jewish community (and is now from New Jersey), has created work that reflects her multiple identities–as a Jewish woman, an Indian woman, and now an American woman–and all the confusions and ironies that implies.

Her paintings include self-portraits of herself as Bluish, a la Krishna and a la Yellow Submarine. She is influenced by Bollywood film posters and Indian comics about the Hindu pantheon. She also portrays herself as Lilith and others from her Jewish studies, not to mention as a feminist in a land of confusing expections. I see bits of True Romance in there too. But the conventions of Indian miniatures with hands in traditional gestures rendered in traditional manner are also there in the mix.

Siona Benjamin. The carved frame is a design used to frame Indian windows in palaces and in the Taj Hotel, one of the buildings taken seige recently in Mumbai.

I went the night of the panel discussion, which was also right after the Mumbai massacre, and included in the exhibit is a piece framed like a traditional Indian palace window–with ornate, arched cut-wood filigree framing the painting–the same style as windows at the Taj Hotel. In the cut-outs was the word, Wham!

Not so pretty when the Wham is for real.

Benjamin’s mother was there that night, all the way from Mumbai, where there remain only about 400 Jews.

Anyway, I was especially charmed by the large Pop images, and by one of the small images in which the blue Siona stands in a pool of water from a dripping tap in the wall, a swatter (or spatula) in hand. I’m sorry I don’t have an image of this one.

The exhibit runs to Mar. 10.

Her own sense of not being quite sure of her identity was echoed in a series of short-short films by Philadelphia video collaborative Termite TV (Michael Kuetemeyer, Anula Shetty and Francesca Soans) at International House.

The videos at International House are in the InLiquid video space there, as well as a part of a two-part show, the other at Asian Arts Initiative. Both parts of the Transplants exhibit were curated by InLiquid curator and member Sean Stoops (who used to be AAI’s curator). And I want to add that the happy siting of this particular subject matter at International House seems particularly apt.

Termite TV, a still from a video about Shetty being mistaken for a Mexican illegal at a border stop near San Diego. Much of the video from the incident was footage of cattle being corralled.

I loved the Termite TV series, about Shetty’s own identity as an Indian woman in America, and then as an American woman in other places, and the confused expectations of others in understanding who she is and what to expect of her.

I also loved the logo of the old-fashioned floating TVs, glowing in their gold and wood-color frames.

Nobutaka Aozaki, SIGNAL, 2008, video still

I was taken by several other videos, including Nobutaka Aozaki’s SIGNAL, drawings of people with push buttons instead of features on their faces, each of them having some variation in the button configuration. They reminded me of Laylah Ali’s drawings suggesting how we use fashion signals to divide and communicate our tribal affiliations.

Another favorite, Rene Marquez‘ rough video, Breed, about dog breeding and how people treat dogs–which is a metaphor for people and group identification and control and conquest of others. Also Belinda Haikes‘ dreamy poetry of longing for the veld of her past–short but moving. And Amarjett Singh’s rueful classic autobiographical video of a college graduate reduced as an immigrant to working low-level jobs. Others showing videos are Huong Ngo and Sara Suleman, in both cases not quite complete thoughts.

Nathalie Pham, Blue Duckie Exploring Spam

At AAI, I loved work from Nathalie Pham, four lacquer on panel with sign-paint fantasy drawings that were witty and Pop. The traditional lacquer technique brings a watery presence through the application of the paint. In the paintings, soda cans float and a Spam can is painted like blue-on-white Chinese porcelain.

Jiny Ung, The Daily Staple

Other standouts include Jiny Ung’s installation, The Daily Staple, an arrangement of rice bowls holding grenades above which flutter printed pages, hanging from clothelines. It’s the printed pages with their fragmentary stories that flutter on the air currents that are the surprise here.

Eliseo Art Silva, Boy With Camera (foreground) and Girl With Camera (background left)

Eliseo Art Silva‘s Boy With Camera (I remember seeing this piece at Arcadia a few years ago) and Girl With Camera are unsettling. Silva, who works with Mural Arts, came here from the Phillipines.

Of the four Chinatown Youth Radio Philadelphia audio stories, XuXu Chen’s report on drying ducks and sneakers side by side in the window at Abakus on North 10th Street was lively and amusing.

Joanna Kao, My Mother and Father

Joanna Kao’s mixed media collage/prints were evocative, especially My Mother and Father. Also showing was an interactive project by Keiko Miyamori, an installation by Romy Scheroder and a student printing project by Ben Volta with students from Grover Washington Middle school.

The mix of student work and professional art made the exhibit a little more uneven than usual, but there was still plenty here that I enjoyed mining.