Shared Dialogue, Shared Space:
Part I, No. 1, 2, and 3
featuring the work of
Akiko Ichikawa, Sari Nordman, and Thomas Gallagher,
Bowne Playground (Union Street & Sanford Avenue, Flushing, Queens)
Saturdays, June 8th, 22nd, and 29th, 12 noon to 4 pm
Date
Saturdays,
June 8th, 22nd, & 29th, 2024,
12pm – 4pm
Location
Bowne Playground,
(Entrance on Sanford Ave),
Flushing, NY 11355
Artists
Akiko Ichikawa
Eiko Nishida
Sari Nordman
Thomas Gallagher
Artists Akiko Ichikawa, Eiko Nishida, Sari Nordman, and Thomas Gallagher install and/or perform their newly commissioned participatory work, engaging visitors and community members in daily life.
SDSS integrates art into people’s ordinary activities in public spaces, exploring and crystallizing the conditions and impacts of creative moments in mundane tasks. In this context, “art” refers to the ability to invent solutions to given critical problems, and SDSS promotes this human capacity for resilience and innovation.
Akiko Ichikawa. Limited, Limited Edition (Flushing)
Ichikawa has translated sayings found on t-shirts worn by pedestrians in the community into Japanese and will stencil the Japanese translations onto second- hand t-shirts at the events. The artist’s activity also includes a skill-share session on producing one’s own stencils for fabric, engaging passersby and participants. Ichikawa creates singular cross-cultural experiences and an imaginative space transcending any one-dimensional take on Japanese culture.
Eiko Nishida/西田栄子 – Bark Tarot
Bark Tarot is an audience-participatory installation. Displayed on the ground, each bark has a cut-out word from a newspaper, and audiences are invited to pick one out among many to see what the universe is telling them. They can take the message with them home. In exchange, they glue a text they choose to the back of a new bark and add the new one to the collection. Nishida sparks conversation by building curiosity among neighbors of diverse backgrounds. Participants share and acknowledge cultural differences while illuminating the changing meanings of the same word or phrase in different contexts.
Sari Nordman – Anxiety Lean-to
Anxiety Lean-to is a public and social engagement project involving knotting workshops to create tapestries using recycled plastic films and traditional Finnish rya rug weaving methods. The workshops will culminate in an environmentally-themed fiber art installation of lean-tos this fall, addressing the problems of single-use plastics and their negative impact on nature and people, particularly in underserved communities. During the collaborative process of making lean-tos from plastic tapestries, participants exchange their perceptions and reflections on recycling, single-use plastics, and solutions to plastic waste problems, raising awareness of environmental issues and root causes.
Thomas Gallagher – Lingo Bingo
Through a game he calls Lingo Bingo, Gallagher creates an opportunity for neighbors from the community to bridge language and cultural barriers: to speak, hear, and understand the “voice of the other.” His project draws on the vernacular visual language and play mechanics of the game Bingo, replacing the numbers with words and phrases in multiple languages to create a low-risk, playful setting for participants of diverse cultural backgrounds to discover shared values.
The four artists’ participatory art activities seek to promote community building among people of diverse backgrounds, foster respect for immigrants from various cultures, and give space to values that span cultures, such as climate justice, racial justice, and equality. Participants will remember and reflect on their experiences by placing art objects they made at home.
SDSS offers artist-run workshops, performances, and participatory activities free of charge with live interpretation services in English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish at local parks in community hubs. ASL services are also available with two weeks’ advance request.
SDSS connects the public to art and culture, focusing on immigrant communities, people with disabilities, and those experiencing economic hardship. The initiative fosters dialogues between audiences and artists, covering a range of subject matter and the multidimensional impact of art on cultural production and social change. It particularly seeks to disrupt rising anti-Asian sentiments and racial divides entrenched in all sectors of American life.
For the past four years, SDSS has broadened communication channels between the contemporary art world and local communities in New York City, advancing the artists’ creative endeavors to engage the public. This year, again, SDSS promises to be an immersive and captivating experience showcasing the artists and the communities' diverse talents and perspectives. All are welcome to attend, and admission is always free to SDSS events.
For more information, please send an email to info@kafny.org
About Korea Art Forum (KAF)
Founded in New York 2013, Korea Art Forum (KAF) is led by artists, scholars, and peacemakers committed to bridging the world through art, serving to advance indispensable values of art’s connectivity, relevance, and equity to create a peaceful world and enhance people’s quality of life and well-being. KAF’s goals are to stem root causes of inequality found in the contemporary art and society, and promote an eco-human-centric framework of art as a social product of public engagement that enables the creation of a peaceful world of coexistence, cooperation, and shared prosperity. Operating at the intersection of the visual arts and humanities, KAF annually produces interrelated projects—Commissions, Exhibitions, Forums, and Publications—to bring together all people from the art world and beyond to share dialogues, serving to build an interconnected peaceful world and support inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.
THANK YOU!
KAF’s 2024 Shared Dialogue, Shared Space (SDSS): Part I programs are supported, in part, by an award of Grants for Art Projects from the National Endowment for the Arts; and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional funding is provided by the Panta Rhea Foundation and the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF). We especially thank our community partners, South Bronx Unite, Minkwon Center, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, the NYC Department of Transportation, and NYC Council members Vickie Paladino, Sandra Ung, and Julie Won for supporting KAF’s projects.
