Artist Statement 2

For my second New Millennium Studies project, my group decided to create a flag and a film. We decided to make a flag because we figured that it would answer the guiding question of how Chinatown is perceived (in other words, the imagined fantasy) versus the reality of life in Chinatown. We chose to make a film to expand on this theme as well.
The trouble is that once we visited Chinatown, we realized that our objective would not be possible because all though life in Chinatown and some of the architecture (as you entered the residential parts) was no different then ours, most of the products that the stores sold primarily Chinese products. This presented a problem for our group, as it meant that we would’t be able to collect enough items for the reality side of our flag. Aidan, Claire and I debated this issue until we agreed to modify our thesis from reality vs. fantasy to a portrait of what Chinatown is.
For our found object, we cut out experts of a newspaper we found in Chinatown and taped it amongst our photos and some of the products (a dragon’s head, a lantern and a Hello Kitty key chain for an instance) that we purchased (although we knew it was not required for the assignment) to make the project look authentic.
Our project answers our guiding question of what Chinatown is by presenting products and pictures that relate to the culture of Chinatown. In some ways, we did achieve our original objective because our flag included several Americanized things found in Chinatown including the architecture of homes and the firehouse, a Burberry headband, a ring pop, the photo of the bank, and an I Love You, Man poster. While the Chinese culture is depicted through the photo of the archway, store windows, the newspaper cutouts, the lantern, the dragon’s head, the Hello Kitty key chain, the umbrellas and the shirt we included on it. The video meets the objective of our guiding question to a higher degree by showing life in Chinatown through the lens of a film camera.
In this piece, we were trying to show that an enclave like Chinatown is not so enclosed to the life of the majority’s ethnicity, and how the way of life is not so different from our own. Judging from the photos and objects we included in the flag and the moving shots that we placed in our video, I think we achieved this objective perfectly.
We want our audience to understand that this message, that an enclave like Chinatown can have aspects that are both American and of the culture of the primary ethnicity. We would hope that our audience would walk away with an understanding of why one should not stereotype the culture of a residential area or the people.
I think the strength of our project is that it presents a portrait of life in Chinatown by presenting both the American and Chinese aspects of the enclave. However, I think the weakness of our project is that we failed to address Chinatown’s extensive history or include people from the area in our project through interviews or photos because we felt awkward asking during the creation of our project.
Working with Claire and Aidan was a wonderful experience for me that I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat again. Although we were unable to visit the neighborhood together, we worked well together when we were working on the flag/video together. All there of us were open minded to each other’s ideas, which helped make the project’s progress flow more quickly. In addition, all three of us made an important contribution to the project. Aidan made the video, Claire stitched together our flag design, while I took photos, collected items and lead our correspondence and direction in and out of the classroom. In this way, no group member did less then the other.
This project relates to past projects I have completed because the art and foundation of the project was a collaborative group effort (much like the projects I once created in high school) and illustrated our main idea. However, our project differed from many projects I have done in the past because my group members and performed equal work and were cooperative of each other’s ideas.
I think our flag bares resemblance to those banners that are used in Chinese New Year parades because the sheet we used as our base has a similar shape the base of those banners. I also think that the design of our flag (pictures, the lantern, dragon etc.) is reminiscent of the extravagant Chinese wording and loose thread used on those banners.