A Journal of the Plague Year
The Lab
2948 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Kadist Art Foundation
3295 20th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
April 1 – May 9, 2015
Reception: April 1, 6–7:30 pm at Kadist SF, 7:30–9 pm at The Lab
April 1, Kadist Art Foundation and The Lab open A Journal of the Plague Year, an exhibition split between the two locations. Curated by Cosmin Costinas and Into Guerrero, the exhibition first appeared at Para Site (Hong Kong) during the summer of 2013. A Journal of the Plague Year is a traveling exhibition reflecting upon the events of the spring of 2003 in Hong Kong—the SARS epidemic, the tragic death of pop icon Leslie Cheung—and addressing xenophobia more generally, exploring the association of disease with Asian populations, and revisiting historical instances of discrimination. The exhibition finds a dynamic host in San Francisco, as many of the narratives informing the exhibition exhibition are more than pertinent to California past and present: Chinese immigration during the Gold Rush, 19th century railway construction, the subsequent Chinese Exclusion Act, and the 1900–1904 Chinatown-centered San Francisco plague. A Journal of the Plague Year also includes documentation for a number of performance works intended to destabilize conventional ideas and depictions of otherness.
A Journal of the Plague Year opens on Wednesday, April 1, with a reception beginning at Kadist Art Foundation (6–7:30 pm) and continuing at The Lab (7:30–9 pm).
Ming Wong, video still from After Chinatown (2012). Customized TV set and video, 7:10 min. Courtesy of the artist and Kadist Art Foundation.
The Chinese Must Go!, trade card from the Missouri Steam Washer Company of St. Louis, Missouri, 1883.
Ricky Yeung Sau-Churk, Man and Cage (1987). Color print documenting a performance, 37 1/2 x 25 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist and Kadist Art Foundation.
A Journal of the Plague includes work by: Ai Weiwei, Asco, Bernd Berhr, Natalia-Sui-hung Chan, Oscar Chan Yik Long, Yin-Ju Chen, George Chinnery, Megan Cope, Sergio de La Torre, Dung Kai-cheung, Larry Feign, James T. Hong, Rustam Khalfin, Henry Kiyama, Irene Kopelman, Firenze Lai, Lam Qua, Dorothea Lange, Lee Kit, Len Lye, Gabriel Leung, Ma Liuming, Paul McCarthy, Fionnula McHugh, Moe Satt, Josef Ng, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Yoshua Okón, Pak Sheung Chuen, Lygia Pape, Para/Site Art Criticism Class 2003, Anand Patwardhan, Raymond Pettibon, Jack Spicer, Shooshie Sulaiman, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Adrian Wong, Ming Wong, Ricky Yeung Sau-churk, Samson Young, Zuni Icosahedron/Mathias Woo and Edward Lam
