Workshop

Taste of Togetherness: Crafting Biographical Sculptures

Saturday, April 13, 2024
3:30 – 6PM

Workshop /工作坊
Location/地点: Fou Gallery, 410 Jefferson Ave #1, Brooklyn, NY 11221
Time/时间: April 13, 2024, 3:30-6 pm

This project was supported by the Laundromat Project’s Create & (Re)Connect Fund, alongside the generous courtesy of Fou Gallery.
该项目得到了he Laundromat Project’s Create & (Re)Connect Fund 的支持,以及否画廊的慷慨赞助。

While we prioritize Asian and Black/Brown youth for our program, we also welcome participants of all ages and backgrounds to join us. We are interested in creating a multigenerational group for this workshop to foster dialogue across different perspectives.
本次活动以黑人和华裔社区为中心,我们也欢迎所有年龄和背景的人参加。我们希望为本次工作坊创建一个多代纪小组,以促进不同观点的对话。

Spaces are limited, first come, first served; please register as soon as possible. We will contact you for more information before April 6.
本次工作坊名额有限,先到先得。如果您感兴趣,请尽快报名,我们将在4月6日前与您联系。

This project, active in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York, explores the culinary connections intertwining Chinese takeouts with the Black / Brown communities.
Emerging from dialogues around “American-Chinese Food,” this project perceives these dishes as a fusion of tastes and a harmonious blend of Chinese and American (predominantly Black) culinary traditions. We envision cuisine as a powerful emblem of unity and shared experiences, forging bonds across diverse cultures.

At the heart of this endeavor are complimentary workshops designed for the younger generation—the youths of Chinese immigrant restaurant workers and their Black and Brown patrons. Here, participants create biographical sculptures. These art pieces, formed from ordinary items and enriched with their families’ oral histories, encapsulate their distinctive culinary lineage, familial narratives, and the enduring solidarity among communities of color confronting the dual challenges of race and gentrification.
Under the guidance of artists, these young creators gather oral histories, choose objects of personal significance, and metamorphose them into visual stories. The sculptures that emerge narrate their collective histories and perspectives anew.

This project aspires to foster empathy and mutual understanding and celebrate the prosperous, multifaceted energy of the Bed-Stuy community. Our commitment is to illuminate the historic and ongoing struggles that bind these communities in their collective quest for a more just and equitable future.

这个位于纽约Bedford-Stuyvesant的项目,探索了中餐外卖店与黑色 / 棕色人种社区之间密切的饮食关系。
从围绕“美式中餐”的对话中浮现出来,这个工作坊项目将这些菜肴视为味道的融合和中美(主要是黑人)烹饪传统的和谐结合。我们将美食视为强大的团结和共享经验的象征,跨越不同种族社群建立联系。
该项目的核心是为年轻一代设计的免费工作坊——中式移民餐馆家庭的青少年及其黑人顾客的青少年在这里,参与者学习创作传记性雕塑。这些艺术作品,由普通物品构成,并且富含他们家族的口述历史,封装了他们独特的烹饪血统、家庭叙事,以及面对种族和城市仕绅化双重挑战时,亚裔与黑人社区之间持久的团结。
在艺术家们的指导下,这些年轻创作者收集口述历史,选择具有个人意义的物品,并将它们转化为视觉故事。最终形成的雕塑重新叙述了他们的集体历史和观点。
这个项目旨在培养共情和相互理解,并展现Bedford-Stuyvesant社区繁荣、多元的活力。我们致力照亮历史性和持续性的奋斗,将这些社区凝聚在一起,共同追求更加公正和公平的未来。

Teaching Artist: 艺术家导师

Fei Li (李非)— Born in Minnan, China, and based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn), Fei Li is an interdisciplinary artist whose artistic practice revolves around community-led and collaborative public rituals, drawing on ancient wisdom while addressing contemporary concerns to instigate non-sequential ripples in the fabric of history. The essence of her work lies in challenging conventional forms, narratives, and Western frameworks by leveraging the transformative potential of alternative media and collective efforts.
Li’s recent project, When They Have Their Own Historians, is granted the 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund and Fiscally Sponsored by NYFA. She is also the awardee of numerous funded artist’s residencies, fellowships, and grants, including the 2023 Create Change Fellowship of Laundromat project, the Milton and Sally Michel Avery Residency for a Visual Artist at Yaddo, Jon Imber Painting Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center; City Artist Corps Grant and Queens Arts Fund New Works Grant. She founded the collaboration platform Accented Projects, which seeks to transcend boundaries, foster meaningful collective action, and catalyze social change.

Ariana Swei is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Brooklyn. They are passionate about genre-bending and socially-engaged works, with a background in both experimental theatre and visual art. Swei works as the Education and Community Programs Coordinator at Ping Chong and Company, teaches at the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, and is often reflecting on their desire to feel validated by their affiliation with institutions. They hold a BA in Studio Art and English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis.

M.Silin is a creative-laborer from Brooklyn, New York. Their work focuses on representation of Black and Brown people, while including statements relating to social justice and dark humor. Aspects of M’s work mostly involves visual arts in regards to curating, abstract design, and zine-making. During the pandemic, M was able to team up with mutual aids in Brooklyn, to create artistic endeavors rooted in community solidarity. In 2022, M has created a zine which focuses on the various food staples in Black and Brown communities in an effort to re-imagine how neighborhoods labeled as “food deserts” can become self-sustainable if they rely on the existing food cultures of their own residents. The zine is now available through Printed Matter. M is also the 2023 Create Change Fellow of Laundromat project.

Guest Artist: 客座艺术家

DaeQuan Alexander Collier is a Bronx-born filmmaker and writer whose work aims to document, respond, and reimagine the complexities of the human experience. Collier received a BFA in Film and Television Arts from the New York University (2018) and an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College (2021). His work has been screened and exhibited both domestically and internationally, as well as won a host of awards. Through his practice, Collier hopes to create engaging work that facilitates conversations about identity and its implications.