Local Filipino American Arts: Work, Working.

[Addendum: Lifted from Christine Wong Yap's blog:

A derisory tone prevails in most media treatment of contemporary art, whether controversial or not, a tone not appropriately skeptical or critically alert but smugly dismissive - and, I suspect, defensive.

This tone reflects little or no effort to imagine the risks of creative work in the postmodern context - the risk of self-deception, of squandering precious time and energy, of embarrassment through self-exposure. Instead, it echoes the tone of anti-intellectualism sounded in every statement in support or denunciation of public policy by every politician who dreads the stigma of “elitism” — and that seems to mean every politician, period.

–Kenneth Baker, “Saving the Soul of Art,” March 2, 2008, SFGate.com]

Zero Hate. I would like to refer back to a couple of my artist/community posts, here and here, in an effort to keep myself focused.

I have just written up and sent in a proposal to [unnamed publication] to curate and edit a journal/anthology project on San Francisco Bay Area Filipino American Arts. Here’s an excerpt:

[...]

Recent discussions with some of my contemporaries have made clear to me that while we work in the capacity of artists, creating works of art, we also ‘wear the hats’ as writers of criticism, reviews, academic papers, etc.

I am interested in curating [...] that would be centered around local Filipino American artists who work in visual arts, as writers, in multimedia installations, performance art. I am interested both in presentations of artistic work, but also essays on process, essays on the works of others (most interesting to me would be cross discipline, poets writing about painters, etc.) and how these inform our own creative processes.

I am thinking of focusing on the local simply because this scene is so rich and so dense with artists, and movement between here and along the Pacific Rim, into the Philippines and back again. There’s some interesting if not volatile interaction and exchange between those who’ve descended from the Manongs (working class West Coast Filipino laborers in the 1920’s) and have lived many generations in the USA, the post-1965 Immigration Act college educated, middle class professionals, and then much more recent immigrants. Our art scenes are diverse with Hiphop influence, a proliferation of MFA’s, explorations of Filipino “indigenous” cultures, and multilingual work.

Some artists I would be very interested in including would be Jennifer K. Wofford and two projects of which she is a part: the Mail Order Brides (Reanne Estrada and Eliza Barrios), and the Galleon Trade (which includes Mike Arcega). Also the Kwatro Kantos (Lian Ladia, England Hidalgo, Mel Vera Cruz, Alvin Flores, et al). For performance, I am thinking of Bindlestiff Studio, Dennis Somera, and Aimee Suzara, among others. For literary, I am thinking of Catalina Cariaga, Jean Vengua, Jaime Jacinto, Tony Robles, among others.

[...]

I am holding my breath (as opposed to not holding my breath!), only because I think this is a good proposal, and a very fruitful subject. One thing I am hoping is that there will be allowance for previously published work. Claire Light, for example, has written a wonderful piece on Michael Arcega, which was published in Tea Party Magazine, and I would be remiss not to include it.

I am happy to be engaging in very good, pointed, and affirming conversations with my peers and contemporaries about the concretes of work and exchange, and the apparentness and proactiveness of the work and exchanges; a Filipina poet and academic has just recently both expressed her intent to teach Poeta en San Francisco, as well as informed me that she’s “borrowed” from my past syllabus on poetic form/formalism, commending my teaching skills in the process. Give and take. And that’s where I am today.