Brief explanations of artists Chia-en Jao and Sun Xun and curator Xiaoyu Weng.

1. Spaces of historical disputes…
Gio: Brooklyn and Queens before they were assembled into
boroughs.
Jess: Washington Sq. park and a couple others were built on top
of cemeteries.
Derricka: Ellis Island and Liberty Island used to belong to NY
but now it’s owned by NJ.
Anna:
.
African Burial Ground, National Monument

2. Spaces of historical disputes…
Jess: Greenwood Cemetery, a whole buncha war veterans
are buried there.
5th ave and 9th street in BK – battle of bunker hill! A building
in memory of the event.
George Washington’s location in Washington heights.
The WTC.
.
African Burial Ground, National Monument

3. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan
Taxi
2016
Color video with
sound

4. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan
Taxi
2016
Color video with
sound
Adopting a documentary style, Taxi presents
conversations between artist Chia-En Jao and
Tapei taxi drivers while en route to historically
contested places. These include destinations such
as the Grand Hotel, the site of the highest ranking
Shinto shrine during Japanese colonial rule.
Photo by xdgrace, deviantart.com

5. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan
Taxi
2016
Color video with
sound
Recorded from the back passenger seat, the
discussions meander through memories of
Taiwan’s decades-long martial law—which
followed the Japanese occupation that ended in
1945—the Cold War, and present-day social-
political topics. The different narratives that
emerge challenge any predefined understanding of
the city’s landmarks.

6. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan
Taxi
2016
Color video with
sound
Raian: I would ask to be taken to the best food
spot in NYC.
Khiri: I would hire him for a tour of NY, and the
places that aren’t necessarily immediate
attractions.In my neighborhood the first thing cab
drivers try to do is identify if you’re from T&T or
Guyana, and then if you know certain people from
there, etc.
Janel: I would ask him to take me to the HOOD.
And talkin’.
Alex: I’ve noticed that most taxi drivers are not
from this country, and I would ask where they’re
from and how they got here and if they like it here.
KT: my mom tries to find out who they are. And
ask all sorts of life story questions.
Derricka: I have a lot of family members who are
taxi drivers, usually I’m driving with them and it’s
such a different thing than being in another cab.
Dolfo: Mostly I’ve been in livery cabs. They’ll ask
if I want to listen to music, and then they’ll ask me
questions.

7. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5wJo28q
BS0

8. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5wJo28q
BS0

9. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan

10. Chia-En Jao
Lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan
Arms no. 31 conveys the diverse histories of Taiwan. A flag in the
tradition of coasts of arms, the work contains elements representing
subsections of Taiwanese society, including aboriginal groups and
religious communities. Nearby this massive patchwork banner is a
vitrine that has paper handouts explaining the sources of the flags many
fabrics and narratives behind select elements. By connecting history and
storytelling, Jap created a collective insignia of Taiwan that honors
individual memory and experience.
Arms no. 31
2016
Textile patchwork

11. Sun Xun
Lives and works in
Bejing
Mythological Time
2016
HD Animated Video with sound, powdered pigments on
mulberry bark paper

12. Sun Xun
Lives and works in
Bejing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5wJo28q
BS0
SERIOUSLY. Watch this guy’s video.

13. Final prep for our visit!
Xiaoyu Weng studied Art History at the
Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and
the CCA in San Francisco. She served as the
founding director of the Kadist Art
Foundation’s Asia Programs, Paris and San
Francisco. There, she launched the Kadist
Curatorial Collaboration, which organizes
exhibitions that stimulate cultural exchange,
and she also oversaw artist residencies and
the building of the contemporary Asian art
collection. Previously, she worked as
program director of the Asian Contemporary
Art Consortium in San Francisco and as a
curator at the Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts at the California College
of the Arts (CCA).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KabQ-dTNABg

14. Final prep for our visit!
Xiaoyu Weng
Associate Curator of Chinese
Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum
“How can I break the rules of how art history is written? How
an exhibition is made? How art is presented? I don’t think art is
a purely aesthetic experience. It should engage with society; it
should engage with people; it should engage with social,
political, cultural issues. ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KabQ-dTNABg

15. Final prep for our visit!
• Anna: I wanna see it.
• Jess: Yeah, I’m excited, I love how there’s so many different
mediums to express their ideas.
• Raian: The amount of money that people spend going to the
museum gauges the value of the experience.
• Janel: I’m scared. I’ve been messed up by Doomocracy, and
nothing can compare to that.
• KT: ALSO EXCITED! Kozak seems excited about this, even though
he can get carried away, but I’m still excited.
• Chess: What tends to happen when people have open access to
museums, they go and it’s a major impact on them.

16. Final prep for our visit!
• Angel: Xiaoyu brought up the idea of artists using
storytelling and narrative to show their work.
• Tash: I like how she doesn’t give prompts to the artists, just
keywords…you can tell the general theme but there’s so
many different directions.
• Camila: She also talks about how the audience should know
where the artists come from and how that influences the
work.
• .

17. What about our School? Our
building?
Our neighborhood?
What are the spaces that seem
to crave artwork being placed
in them?
• The “Honeycombs” on the ceiling. They have potential for site
specific work.
• KT: The giant cube in the front. The MLK cube.
• Chess: the stairways, they’re so bleak.
• Raian: The windows, there’s potential to show a HUGE picture on
them. Other buildings can’t do that.
• Anna: the terrace(s) have potential for….ART!
• Anna: Lincoln center has a lot of site specific art…it wouldn’t look
“good” in a different place.
.

18. What about our School? Our
building?
Our neighborhood?
What are the spaces that seem
to crave artwork being placed
in them?
• Riddles: The metal framework…reminds me of a prison.
• Cailan: The ceiling outside with all the colors.
• Jess: The exterior terrace with those cubes of plants.
• Michelle: the MLK Cube!! It’s so drab and dark…we wanna give it
some color. (Cor-Ten Steel) and the lunch room.
• Anesia: The stairs leading up to the terrace.
• Camila: the interior hallways.
• Tash: The lobby….
• Michelle: Boring classrooms….we gotta spruce it up.
• Anesia: Our school has plants around the windows.
• Jess: I love the windows. They’ open up the space and bring light in.
.

19. I provided the artists with a set of keywords:
Territory
Borders
Boundaries
Divide