Author Archives: rosebud

Public Art Project with the City of West Hollywood

Mei Xian Qiu: City of West Hollywood Public Art Mural

Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom

installation pending

West Hollywood Park

“Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom,” a series of photographs portraying a Chinese takeover of the United States, is a popular Western misquotation of Mao Zedong’s “Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom, Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend.” Taken from classical Chinese poetry, Mao used this slogan to proclaim a great society where arts, academia and “a hundred schools of thought contend.” As a result, artists and academics came out of hiding and there was a brief flowering of culture.

In the photographs, hidden political dangers are suggested and must be addressed urgently, but are put aside momentarily, subsumed to the romance of “the beautiful idea.” The models for the imagery are Pan Asian American artists, and academics specializing in Chinese culture, the very group at risk in a Hundred Flowers Movement. The costumes are discarded U.S. military uniforms, cheongsams constructed for the photographs, and Chinese mock ups taken from a Beijing photography studio, specializing in getups for foreign tourists to re-enact Cultural Revolution Propaganda imagery.

The photographs uses familiar symbolism and historical dystopianism, but looks squarely to the future. Never forgetful of the past, this body of work engages the constitution of the future, affirmatively critical, specifically with respect to globalism, the identity of the self and self-view, the social landscape, post-colonialism, and that of the larger national body politic.

Mei Xian Qiu is a Los Angeles based artist. She was born in the town of Pekalongan, on the island of Java, Indonesia, to a third generation Chinese minority family. At birth, she was given various names in preparation for societal collapse and variant potential futures, a Chinese name, an American name and an Indonesian name given by her parents, as well as a Catholic name by the local priest. In the aftermath of the Chinese and Communist genocide, the family immigrated to the United States. She was moved back and forth several times between the two countries during her childhood – her parents initial reaction to what they perceived as the amorality of life in the West countered the uncertainty of life in Java. Partially as a result of a growing sense of restlessness, her father joined the U.S. Air Force and the family lived across the country, sometimes staying in one place for just a month a time.

<art, la=”” angeles. =”” los=””>Follow us on social media! #WEHOARTS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WeHoArts

Twitter: www.twitter.com/wehoarts

Instagram: www.instagram.com/wehoarts

For questions, contact Rebecca Ehemann, Public Art Coordinator at (323) 848-6846 or rehemann@weho.org. For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, please call, TTY: (323) 848-6496. To learn more information about the City of West Hollywood and its arts programs visit www.weho.org/arts.

—————————————————————

PHOTO LA

A juried international exhibition and first Queer/LGBT show ever staged at Photo LA. Round Hole, Square Peg 2 is an on-going search for new LGBTQ visual archetypes. 30 emerging and mid-career artists selected from an international competition will be presented in the Artists Corner booth at Photo LA. An invitational, curated Wall of Fame featuring current top photographers will form a special part of the exhibition. Now in its 25th year, Photo LA – from 21-24 January 2016 – is one of the longest-running fine art fairs in the USA.

After Photo LA, the exhibition will open at the Artists Corner Gallery in Hollywood, California on Saturday, 6th February 2016 from 7-10p. The gallery’s opening night reception will be a fundraising auction-party for The Trevor Project: the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to (LGBTQ) young people. Tickets are $40 and will be obtainable through Eventbright. Celebrity-driven art works on auction will be available for viewing and bidding at handbid.com. Auction winners will be notified by phone and e-mail.The Lovers

________________________________________________________

Solo Show at LACDA

January 14-February 20, 2016
Reception: Saturday, January 16, 7-9pm
In the artist’s words:
I started to think towards two divergent rivulets. One, the phrase “I love you” as used in daily parlance, aggressive, vulnerable, necessary, and common simultaneously, the most important frightening thing; it was also a gateway to what you, yes, as an individual with a perceived sense of identity, believe others want you to say to them; it was a qualifier to other more alluring and emotionally specific concerns. How do we trade in love, sex, happiness?
An inspiration for the series had been “Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe” by Edouard Manet, depicting a nude woman at a picnic with 2 well dressed men. Painted in a rough, bold manner, this painting caused controversy in 1862 for its shocking and raw depiction of gender inequality, revealing the nude tantalizing figure as both a probable prostitute as well as an allegorical muse. Again, there is the study of contrasts — the feminine versus the masculine, the naked versus the clothed, the elite versus the commonplace, and the innate aggression versus the vulnerability of the act of nudity itself.
Which led to secondly, maybe not so divergently, the fetishization and objectification of inspiration, of the muse, of all passion-the shattering, obvious, hard edge of this that tail gates easier romanticized views. The series, “I love you” examines the intersections of adoration and desperation, victim and aggressior, oppression and self oppression, globalism, even colonialization and provincialism.

Los Angeles Center for Digital Art

los angeles center for digital art, 104 East Fourth Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013, http://lacda.com

Radiator Gallery

September 18-October 23, 2015.

Opening Reception: Friday, September 18, 6pm – 9pm.

at Radiator Gallery (10-61 Jackson Ave LIC, New York).

Curated by Culturadora
Artists: Rachel Libeskind, Daniel Greenfield, Romina Hendlin, Nick Fusaro, Mei Xian Qiu, Tracey Snelling, Diego Zaks, Ariela Kader & Eric Corriel.
MEI XIAN QIU “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom” 2012, Photograph on Plexiglass..

Conceived Without Sin – Vernissage

  • Radiator Gallery

Sept 18 – Oct 23
Artists: Artists: Rachel Libeskind, Daniel Greenfield, Romina Hendlin, Nick Fusaro, Mei Xian Qiu, Tracey Snelling, Diego Zaks, Ariela Kader, Arantxa Araujo & Eric Corriel

Curated by Culturadora

“The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a person only tells them with all his might.” Mark Twain.

Conceived Without Sin is an exhibition that proposes a new religion that reframes the longstanding ideology of Judeo-Christian thought. Participating artists have transformed the space into a modern day sanctuary, governed by the laws of communication and open thought, challenging archaic binary notions of good and evil. Conceived Without Sin presents how religion could look like from the perspective of a generation that has inherited the lessons of the most important social and political revolutions in history. Growing up with the ubiquity of the Internet meant that at a young age we were granted immediate access to scientific data and different currents of thought, often with little oversight. Access to information encouraged challenging seminal religious stories like Virgin Mary’s mysterious pregnancy and aroused questions such as: Why does female sexuality have to be condemned? And, why must homosexuality be categorized as deviant behavior?

This proposal challenges the myths that religion has perpetuated regarding sexuality at large, but specifically homosexuality and bisexuality. The widespread political reform regarding same-sex marriage in North America has propelled some of these artists to question the ideology of the Judeo-Christianity model. According to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, Millennials have the highest acceptance for same-sex marriage than any other generation. At 70 percent approval rating, this generation’s acceptance of sexual independence has led to greater social tolerance and is closing the gap of gender disparity. With such acceptance, religions are losing their power as the sole compass of morality and virtue. The limited representation of race in religious imagery is another challenge we propose to address in the context of this exhibition. Historically, groups looking to strengthen their powers and suppress individual thought often devised artistic depictions of religious myths that favored their own agendas. Those without power were left out of the visual narratives that have served as the aesthetic norm for centuries.

Rachel Libeskind will perform a Nativity Scene during the opening.

www.culturadora.com

www.radiatorarts.com

e-moderne

Reminder of opening
Friday, Oct. 16th, 6-8 pm

Let the Hundred Flowers Blossom. 
A provocative contemporary photography by Internationally plaudits Photographer Mei Xian Qiu
East Coast Solo Debut. Explores fictional vistas
in lieu of documenting reality.

Artist reception: Friday, Oct 16th, 2015    6 – 8 pm
116 Arch St., Philadelphia PA

 

LA Art Core


Sun-Sept13-LAArtcore-MeiXianQiu     LA Artcore presents an exhibit of three artists.  Mei Xian Qiu, Mike Saijo, and Patrick Quinn offer different approaches to what it means to be an artist, and what the art they make is for.

Mei Xian Qiu (see image)  has created a photo series called “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom”, referencing the famous Mao reform program, in which she imagines a Chinese Communist takeover of the United States. Using this scenario, she explores the misconceptions and bad translations the West uses to view China, the imagery of romance routinely found in propaganda, but with tongue in cheek references to the immorality such propaganda is frequently criticizing, such as homosexuality, religion, and Hollywood decadence.

Mike Saijo found a way to make art that interfaces with his intellectual interests and an expression on the role of an artist in our society.  Drawing from an intense interest in linguistics, theory, and literature, pages that nourished his mind become the actual surface onto which he applies his images; as an example, arranged selections from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet become a substrate for the image of a tree.

Patrick Quinn is an assemblage artist who uses a range of media to create what he describes as rough, emotional work. He blends salvaged materials with found objects, photographs and other story-telling elements to create something new out of discarded and dispossessed components.

On view: September 10 – October 1

What: Opening reception
Where: LA Artcore Brewery Annex is located at 650 A South Avenue 21, LA, 90031
When: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Phone: 323.276.9320
Website: http://www.laartcore.org/