Opening & Exhibition Info |Exhibition Brochure| Participation | Opening Artist Speech |
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Liza Stoner // Olu & Company
434-996-3062 // liza@olucompany.com
More Art Presents The Red String: An AR Public Art Project by Lily & Honglei, Promoting Healing in Asian American Communities
The Augmented Reality installation will include a series of banners installed in Chinatown parks, bringing to life short animations inspired by East Asian folktales and traditional opera performances
New York, NY, Queens, NY—More Art is pleased to present The Red String, an augmented reality-based public artwork by artist collective Lily & Honglei, on view October 1 through December 19, 2022 in Bowne Playground, Flushing and on view October 15 through December 18, 2022 in Columbus Park, Manhattan. More Art will host an opening reception on Saturday, October 1 at Bowne Playground, from 4-6 pm, with an opera performance by the Kunqu Society of New York.
The Red String is an Augmented Reality (AR) art installation designed for multiple public parks in Asian American neighborhoods. The installation consists of both physical and digital components reflecting on immigrant experiences, East Asian cultural heritage, and Asian American identity. The artwork includes a series of large banners with distinct designs inspired by patterns of Asian red strings, also called Asian knots, a type of folk art symbolizing unity & love. The banners will be installed along the fences at both parks, in close proximity to the tables and benches where community members and visitors gather on a daily basis.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has fallen victim to elevated racial bias and violent physical attacks in New York City and nationwide. Living in isolation and fear, many Asian American immigrants have sought solace by congregating with peers in neighborhood public parks where they play cards and mahjong, or practice traditional musical instruments together.
Designed for two popular public parks in predominantly Asian American neighborhoods, the goal of the public art project is to bring healing to the Asian American communities that have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic both economically and emotionally.
Located in New York’s two largest “Chinatowns”—settled by a variety of Asian diasporic residents—Bowne Playground and Columbus Park provide Asian immigrant residents with spaces to build bonds and find support for one another. The Red String project aims to promote intercultural dialogue and communications between these two Asian enclaves and the broader American society, while bringing a contemporary artistic practice that often evades these underserved immigrant communities.
Project Details
Each park installation consists of eight vinyl banners, measured at 72” (high) by 54” (wide), and an augmented reality experience that can be activated by visitors using their smartphones. Banners will be installed on the chain link fences in both parks.
F1. Lily & Honglei, The Red String (2022). Project visualization: banners & augmented reality at Bowne Playground
The Red String’s digital components include a mobile phone augmented reality (AR) app and short animations inspired by East Asian folktales and traditional opera performances. Scanning an AR code on the vinyl banners with their smartphone cameras, visitors in the parks can watch as the banners come to life through animation paired with traditional Chinese music soundtracks. The AR viewing experience is designed to be highly intuitive and family-friendly, and it can be easily recorded and shared with others through the viewer’s mobile device.
About More Art
More Art is a non-profit organization based in New York that commissions socially engaged public art projects, reaching over 10,000 spectators a year. More Art supports collaborations between artists and communities to create public art projects and educational programs that stimulate creative engagement with critical social and cultural issues. More Art uses public art and digital media to create powerful experiences that aggregate individual and collective perspectives on sensitive topics, such as immigration. All projects are carried out through multi-year collaborations with local organizations.
About Lily & Honglei
Lily & Honglei is an Asian immigrant artist collaborative whose art practice integrates Asian cultural heritages, traditional mediums with emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality. Striving to make a voice for marginalized groups in societies, their work often focuses on immigrant experience and Asian American cultural identity.
Lily & Honglei have presented their artworks at numerous contemporary art venues, including the Museum of Art and Design, Queens Museum, The Painting Center of New York, Eyebeam Art Technology Center, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Asian American Art Alliance, Dumbo Art Festival in New York, Boston Cyberart Festival, Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Wilfrid Israel Museum of Asian Art & Studies, to name a few. Their AR projects have been presented along with the ManifestAR collaborative at Whitney Museum. Lily & Honglei are recipients of the People’s Choice Award at the Museum of Art & Design in New York, Creative Capital Award for Moving Image & Visual Arts, New York Foundation of Arts Fellowship, New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grants, Queens Art Fund New Work Grants, Jerome Foundation, among others. Their art practice has been discussed by many art historians such as Margaret Hillenbrand and Angela Becher.
WHEN: Opening on October 1, 2022, Saturday 4-6 PM
Exhibition at Bowne Playground, Flushing: October 1 – December 19, 2022
Exhibition at Columbus Park, Manhattan: October 15 – December 18, 2022
WHERE:
Exhibition Location 1. Bowne Playground, Downtown Flushing, Union St & Barclay Ave, 11355. See map here
Exhibition Location 2. Columbus Park, Manhattan, Baster St & Mulberry St, 10013. See map here
WHAT: Integrating large banners with animations through smartphone augmented reality (AR) technology, The Red String is a large-scale public art project that depicts the Asian immigrant experience, cultural heritage, and collective identity. In the Opening, responding to the AR installation visually and spiritually, the Kunqu Society of New York, a Chinese traditional opera performing group, will present a live performance of the classic Kunqu play – The Peony Pavilion.
《紅線》展覽及開幕式信息
Exhibition & Opening Information
With support from More Art, we created The Red String public art project for our community in Flushing Chinatown, home to the highest number of Chinese immigrants in New York City*. The Red String offers a unique opportunity for us to collaborate with Flushing Chinese American cultural groups such as the Kunqu Society. Presenting new media art and traditional Kunqu opera performance together, we reflect on our collective Asian American identity and create new cultural memories in Flushing Chinatown. More representations of our cultural heritage and its contemporary development will help other groups understand us better.
Lily & honglei
Participation: As a socially engaged art project, the artists encourage everyone to become a co-creator of The Red String by making sketches and notes about your stories on the postcard and share on social media with the hashtag #redstring2022
For more info about The Red String public art project, please click here. If you have any questions, please email to honglei.li.art@gmail.com
获取关于《红线》公共艺术的更多信息，请访问网站。如果您有问题，请联络以上邮箱。
Opening Artist Speech [transcript]
Today is a special day for us as artists to present The Red String public art at Flushing, where we have a profound personal and cultural connection. The first time I came to Flushing was in 2004, the second day after I arrived in the States as an immigrant from China. I immediately learned about the vital role that Flushing had played in Chinese immigrant life – it is the place where we can find necessities and services. Gradually, I have learned that beyond these, Flushing is also indispensable to many Asian Americans and other groups of people who have lived in the city for a very long time because of its cultural uniqueness.
The Red String project is the result of the strong support from public art organization More Art, which advocates for social changes, inclusiveness, and diversity in New York City’s cultural landscape. Since the beginning of this year, we have worked closely with the More Art team, including executive director Micaela, curators Shona and Dylan, and fellow leaders Sarah and Madison. We are incredibly grateful for their hard work in making The Red String a reality. Also, we cannot thank our fellow artists enough for their inspiration, encouragement, and wonderful fellowship. More Art helps us materialize a big idea – create a public art project for our own community in Flushing Chinatown. It is significant because, as we know, Flushing Chinatown, Community District 7, is the home to the highest number of Chinese immigrants in New York City. We are so grateful to More Art for this unique opportunity to amplify our voice through public art.
The Red String project is a relatively complex project containing many layers of meaning. It has raised questions about cultural isolation and the lack of arts and cultural services endured by the immigrant enclaves such as the Flushing Chinatown community. We hope this project could inspire more institutional support and bring quality art and cultural programs to this neighborhood.
Stylistically speaking, The Red String project integrates Eastern traditional art forms with new media art and emerging technology to reflect Chinese American collective identity and the immigrant experience. We, as Asian Americans, are longing for more dialogues, understanding, and unity with other groups. And art is a universal language that can speak for and speak to our souls. Art can be the herald of new cultural movements influencing mainstream perceptions. We hope our art practice is part of the current trend in which artists strive to unite and heal communities; we also hope to produce more representations of Asian immigrant stories, which may help other groups understand us better.
The Red String also highlights the crucial role that cultural heritage plays in immigrant life. One of the biggest challenges we have been facing is developing a new identity in a complex social environment such as New York City. As a symbol of collective identities, cultural heritages contribute to uniting and strengthening cultural groups and communities. It is the glue that binds us together and helps us to create a sense of belonging. Cultural heritage is not just about the past. It is more about the present and future. As immigrant artists, we not only endeavor to preserve cultural heritage but also transform it to reflect our new realities.
The Red String project uniquely integrates visual formats inspired by Chinese folk art and traditional opera performance with emerging technology to reflect our spiritual journeys, which are illustrated by the banners displayed along Union St. Using smartphone augmented reality technology, viewers can watch interactive animations superimposed on the banners. We will give a demonstration of the smartphone augmented reality later. Before that, we will have an opportunity to enjoy a traditional Kunqu opera performance. Kunqu opera has profoundly influenced our creativity. As you will see from the banners and AR animations, many design components of The Red String project reinterpret Kunqu plays in contemporary settings. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce the Kunqu Society of New York. They are a group of dedicated Chinese American performing artists and scholars who are passionate about their cultural traditions and eager to share them with more New Yorkers. Their performances usually take place in theaters, but they have overcome many challenges in this public park setting to bring us this beautiful traditional art. They will perform an excerpt of The Peony Pavilion, a masterpiece written more than four hundred years ago and still celebrated for its elegance, beauty, and passion for life by audiences around the globe. In order to overcome the language barrier, we have included the English translation inside the exhibition brochure. Please feel free to get a copy from us. Now let’s welcome the performers from Kunqu Society.
* “Flushing, Community District (CD) 7 is home to the largest number of Chinese immigrants in the City (70,000), more than double the number in Manhattan’s Chinatown (32,000).” – Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/immigrants/downloads/pdf/Fact-Sheet-NYCs-API-Immigrant-Population.pdf
“There are multiple Chinatowns in the borough of Queens in New York City. The original Queens Chinatown emerged in Flushing, initially as a satellite of the original Manhattan Chinatown, before evolving its own identity, surpassing in scale the original Manhattan Chinatown,[1] and subsequently, in turn, spawning its own satellite Chinatowns in Elmhurst, Corona, and eastern Queens.” https://www.coursehero.com/file/105734941/town11docx/
今天是个非常特殊的日子。作为艺术家，我们很兴奋能够在法拉盛展出公共艺术作品《红线》。对我们来讲，法拉盛有特殊的文化联系和个人联系。对很多华裔移民来讲，法拉盛往往是我们来到美国后的第一站。甚至对很多在美国生长的华裔以及其他群体来讲，因为法拉盛独特的文化，它也是不可取代的。
这里提供给我们亚裔物质空间，来发展我们的共同的文化身份和文化记忆。公共艺术《红线》是纽约文化艺术机构对我们支持的结果，特别是MORE ART,促进社会进步、包容和多样性。MORE ART的支持，帮助我们实现了这个大胆的创意：为法拉盛亚裔移民社区创作一个大型的公共艺术项目，一个可以加强我们社区与其他群体的文化沟通的作品。可以说，《红线》是第一个为法拉盛华裔社区特别设计的公共艺术作品，这有着比较深远的意义，尤其是因为法拉盛唐人街，或者叫做第七社区，是纽约市最大的华裔社区。
我们今天能够在这里展示作品，是因为艺术组织和文化机构对亚裔社区的支持，也是因为我们亚裔群体需要更多地展现我们的共同身份、文化遗产、语汇和价值。作为美国亚裔群体，我们渴求更多对话、理解、与团结。艺术，作为共同的语言，可以为我们的灵魂说话。艺术可以是文化运动的先驱，影响社会的主流观念。希望我们的艺术实践是当前文化潮流的一部分，团结和治愈我们的社区。希望《红线》激发更多文艺机构的支持，为法拉盛唐人街带来优质的艺术文化服务。
自今年年初以来，我们与 More Art 团队密切合作，包括执行董事 Micaela、策展人 Shona 和 Dylan，以及艺术家团队领导者 Sarah 和 Madison。我们非常感谢他们为实现《红线》公共艺术所做的辛勤工作。
《红线》公共艺术项目具有很多独特性，特别是受到中国民间艺术和传统戏曲表演启发，将传统视觉形式与新兴技术相结合，反映我们亚洲移民的精神之旅。您可能已经注意到Union St沿街的横幅。利用增强现实科技技术，观众可以在智能手机上观看短动画。稍后我们会演示智能手机增强现实艺术。在此之前，我们将有个非常难得的机会，欣赏纽约昆曲社的传统昆曲表演。我们想借此机会来展示文化遗产对移民社区的重要性。它把我们社区成员联系在一起，帮助我们创造归属感。文化遗产不仅仅是过去。它更多地是关于现在和未来。
包括昆曲表演在内的中国文化遗产对我们的艺术创造有深刻的影响。您可以看到，《红线》作品的许多设计元素试图在目前的社会环境中重新诠释昆曲的意义。今天，我们非常荣幸地介绍纽约昆曲社。他们将表演《牡丹亭》的节选，与我们分享传统艺术，这是一部写于四百多年前的杰作，至今仍以其优雅、美丽和对生活的热情而受到全球观众的赞誉。