100% OTHER: ARTISTS & PSYCHO-DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITIONS
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100% Other: Artists and Psycho-Demographic Transitions
for The Future of Nations- Part Two “Demographics”
Guest curated by Tyler Stallings
April 12-June 13, 2008
Artists:
Matthew Bryant
Cheryl Gilge
Perry Vasquez
Reggie Woolery
Yasuko
In the context of The Future of Nations exhibition series that seeks to create a critical forum for artists to bring forward ideas and new visual strategies that address election year issues, this exhibition will look a the subject of demographics.
Demographics collects data on aspects of the population which is most often used by government and marketing research, most notably in regard to race age, and income. On one hand the data usually appears neutral, but the questions and categories are not. For example, the categories in the first U.S. census in 1790 were free white males of 16 years and upward, free white males under 16 years, free white females, all other free persons (by sex and color), and slaves. The last census in 2000 had numerous categories. Some were based on skin color (black or white), others on culture (Hispanic or Asian), and for the first time, there was a multiracial category. In other words, the reasoning behind the categories seems askew. The exhibition does not focus on the U.S. census survey but it is a prime example of the impact that demographic surveys can have on politics and the election. After all, these statistics are used for apportioning Federal funding for many social and economic programs.
The title of this group exhibition, 100% Other: Artists and Psycho-Demographic Transitions, was inspired by a comment from Gregory Rodriguez during a recent radio interview discussing his new book, Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America (Pantheon, 2007). The book discusses how contemporary Mexican immigration will change the way Americans view race. In the radio interview, he focused on mixed ancestry, and the associated label of “mestizo” as way to undermine ethnic and cultural categorization and to disrupt a system based on such classification via the U.S. census. With bravado and the wink of an eye, Rodriguez prompted everyone to check off “Other” in the 2010 census. In other words, if it became the ascending category, hoping for 100%, then there would be a forced re-evaluation of how resources are distributed from federal, state, and local governments.
The artists that will be included in the group exhibition will explore immigration and race, the border, power and class distinctions, the construction of identity, categorical generalizations, and the ideology of statistics. Work will be presented in and outside the gallery setting.
There will be a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Kyungmi Shin in the project space, concurrent with the group exhibition. She will create a photo-based, sculptural installation inspired by her recent trips to the Republic of Ghana in West Africa in relationship to her experience of living in Los Angeles. Shin holds MFA degrees in sculpture and painting from the University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco Art Institute, and San Francisco State University. She has been the recipient of many prestigious art grants and has exhibited internationally at galleries and museums, including the Korean American Museum (2005), Laguna Art Museum (2003), and California State Long Beach Art Museum (2002).
Guest curator, Tyler Stallings, is the director of University of California, Riverside's Sweeney Art Gallery. He has organized many exhibitions and published several books that explore cross-cultural influences and politics in art, which include Desmothernismo: Ruben Ortiz Torres, Kara Walker: African't, and Whiteness, a Wayward Construction, among others.
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