stephanie mei huang –
Publication Release of (self-portraits as) neither donkey nor horse
Monday, July 19, 20217:00pmSchindler House
835 N Kings Road
West Hollywood, CA 90069(map)
This is a free ticketed event, by reservation only. Tickets will be released Tuesday, June 22nd.
The MAK Center for Art and Architecture presents the publication launch of (self-portraits as) neither donkey nor horse, a collection of recent work by stephanie mei huang, curated by Hauser & Wirth summer resident Allison C Smith.
Taking the form of an exhibition (on view at Hauser & Wirth) and publication, (self portraits as) presents huang’s recent works regarding racial melancholia and grief as explored through a cowboy drag avatarism of the (Asian) American West. In the wake of the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shootings, huang’s work addresses biopolitical and xenophobic rhetoric that finds its roots in19th century “yellow peril” and then becomes regurgitated and expanded upon in a 21st century anti-Chinese discourse surrounding COVID-19. huang counters/engages with this discourse with domesticized objects of play: play as drag/dress-up, domestication as colonization, animacies as hierichichalized bodies, miniaturization and infantilization of cowboy culture. A para-narrative is met with an autotheory that ruptures throughout huang’s paintings, sculpture, photography, graphic design, performance, and video/film works, presented concurrently at Hauser & Wirth.
The ultimate rupture from exhibition’s paranarative occurs in the publication, which includes a curators note by Smith, an artist’s essay by huang that follows the tradition of autotheory as a modality of queer theory, and three letters to the artist by Lucas Baisch, Michael Ned Holte, and Ling Tiong. The form of letters reflects on a larger intimate history within queer communities of care and relationships centered around letter writing. For the publication release, huang collaborates with artist Julie Tolentino and sound artist Amma Ateria. huang reads from their personal artist’s essay, a self-theory, followed by a collaborative work engaging with Tolentino’s multi-decade study and practice with Chinese herbs and Eastern bodywork through a moxibustion— the burning of moxa, a mugwort, and artemisia (which huang spent this past spring foraging), on meridian points on huang’s body in a fortification of the yellow femme’s somatics— accompanied by live electro-acoustic synth sound works by Ateria.
About (self-portraits as) neither donkey nor horse
(self-portraits) as neither donkey nor horse will be on view at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles from June 26 – August 1 2021. The exhibition is curated, programed, and published by Allison C Smith, the summer resident of Hauser & Wirth’s ongoing collaboration with the California Institute of the Arts’ School of Critical Studies program.
835 N Kings Road
West Hollywood, CA 90069(map)
This is a free ticketed event, by reservation only. Tickets will be released Tuesday, June 22nd.
The MAK Center for Art and Architecture presents the publication launch of (self-portraits as) neither donkey nor horse, a collection of recent work by stephanie mei huang, curated by Hauser & Wirth summer resident Allison C Smith.
Taking the form of an exhibition (on view at Hauser & Wirth) and publication, (self portraits as) presents huang’s recent works regarding racial melancholia and grief as explored through a cowboy drag avatarism of the (Asian) American West. In the wake of the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shootings, huang’s work addresses biopolitical and xenophobic rhetoric that finds its roots in19th century “yellow peril” and then becomes regurgitated and expanded upon in a 21st century anti-Chinese discourse surrounding COVID-19. huang counters/engages with this discourse with domesticized objects of play: play as drag/dress-up, domestication as colonization, animacies as hierichichalized bodies, miniaturization and infantilization of cowboy culture. A para-narrative is met with an autotheory that ruptures throughout huang’s paintings, sculpture, photography, graphic design, performance, and video/film works, presented concurrently at Hauser & Wirth.
The ultimate rupture from exhibition’s paranarative occurs in the publication, which includes a curators note by Smith, an artist’s essay by huang that follows the tradition of autotheory as a modality of queer theory, and three letters to the artist by Lucas Baisch, Michael Ned Holte, and Ling Tiong. The form of letters reflects on a larger intimate history within queer communities of care and relationships centered around letter writing. For the publication release, huang collaborates with artist Julie Tolentino and sound artist Amma Ateria. huang reads from their personal artist’s essay, a self-theory, followed by a collaborative work engaging with Tolentino’s multi-decade study and practice with Chinese herbs and Eastern bodywork through a moxibustion— the burning of moxa, a mugwort, and artemisia (which huang spent this past spring foraging), on meridian points on huang’s body in a fortification of the yellow femme’s somatics— accompanied by live electro-acoustic synth sound works by Ateria.
About (self-portraits as) neither donkey nor horse
(self-portraits) as neither donkey nor horse will be on view at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles from June 26 – August 1 2021. The exhibition is curated, programed, and published by Allison C Smith, the summer resident of Hauser & Wirth’s ongoing collaboration with the California Institute of the Arts’ School of Critical Studies program.