
Join us for the first artist talk of ‘WOMEN我們: From Her to Here’ !
The talk brings together presentations from three participating artists, TT Takemoto, Madeleine Lim, and Heesoo Kwon to reflect on the theme of the “Queer Futurity”. With moving images being their main medium, the artists will share how they express themselves as well as the possibilities of queerness via their artistic practises. From diving into historical footages, documenting the queer movements, to creating a metaverse, these presentations aim to reflect the different female desires and the longing of queer existences. The talk also invites scholar Dr. Denise Tang, curator Hoi Leung and Hong Kong artist Kalen Lee to further unpack the possibilities for persuading a nonbinary future.
Feel free to explore the virtual exhibition before the talk!
This free event will take place on Zoom. Click on ‘Get Tickets‘ to register and receive the meeting link.
Introduction of the speakers:
TT Takemoto (b.1967 , based in San Francisco)
TT Takemoto is a queer Japanese American artist and scholar exploring Asian American history, sexuality, and identity. Their experimental films delve into hidden dimensions of same-sex intimacy and trauma that exists within Asian and Asian American archives. Takemoto interacts with found footage and archival materials through labor-intensive processes of painting, lifting, and manipulating 16mm/35mm film emulsion using scotch tape, razor blades, and nail polish. By engaging with tactile and sensory dimensions of queer histories, Takemoto conjures up immersive fantasies involving butch surgeons, femme fish filleting, and homoerotic breadmaking. Their films honour queer Asian Americans who lived, loved, and labored together during the pre-war era and beyond.
Madeleine Lim (b.1964, based in San Francisco)
Madeleine Lim is the founding Executive/Artistic Director of Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP). As one of a small number of queer women of color filmmakers on the international film festival circuit in the late 90’s, she saw that only queer women of color would tell their own authentic stories. Decades ahead of mainstream conversations about gender and racial equity in film, she founded QWOCMAP in 2000. Her belief was that a community of filmmaker-activists could change the craft of filmmaking and the leadership of social justice movements. Under Madeleine’s leadership, QWOCMAP’s award-winning Filmmaker Training Program has nurtured the creation of over 450 films, the largest catalog of LBTQ+ BIPOC films in existence.
Madeleine is an award-winning filmmaker with over 25 years of experience as a producer, director, cinematographer, and editor. Her films have screened at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, including the Vancouver International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and Amsterdam Amnesty International Film Festival. Her work has been featured at universities, museums, and broadcast to millions on PBS. Her film Sambal Belacan in San Francisco (1997) remains banned in Singapore.
Heesoo Kwon (b.1990, based in San Francisco and Seoul)
Heesoo Kwon is a visual artist and anthropologist from South Korea and is currently based in the Bay Area, California. Kwon received her Masters of Fine Art from UC Berkeley in 2019. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Et Al and Studio 2W, San Francisco; Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley; and CICA Museum and Visual Space Gunmulsai, South Korea. She has participated in group exhibitions at the CICA Museum; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; 47 Canal, New York; Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco; Slash Gallery, San Francisco; and Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK, among others. In 2012 Kwon received the Female Inventor of the Year Award from the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Her other accolades include the Young Korean Artist Award from the CICA Museum, a finalist in the 20th Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival, a finalist of the Sheffield DocFest Arts Programme, and the Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize for Photos and Art Practice from UC Berkeley, and a finalist of the Queer | Art | Prize of recent works in 2021.
Dr. Denise Tang is Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies and Associate Dean in Teaching and Learning at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Her research specializes in gender and sexualities with specific focus on lesbian desires and transgender masculinities in an inter-Asian context. Prior to entering academia, Tang was program manager and HIV testing counselor for communities including Asian & Pacific Islander LGBTQI+, survivors of sexual violence, First Nations women and youth in San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver B.C.
Hoi Leung is a Hong Kong-born, San Francisco-based, curator with a deep sensitivity to neighbourhood dynamics in her curatorial approach. As Chinese Culture Center’s curator, she oversees the center’s exhibitions, public art interventions, and multi-year community-based projects.
Hoi’s recent curatorial projects include: dawn_chourusiii: the fruit they don’t have here by Sofía Córdova (2021), a multi-year project and an experimental video work that foregrounds the stories of six Bay Area women who journeyed to the United States as refugees; and Homing (2020)—a site-specific solo exhibition by Taiwanese sound artist Hung Tzu Ni which explores San Francisco’s unique urban history. Her upcoming project is Cathy Lu’s Interior Garden (early 2022), a major solo exhibition of large-scale ceramic-based installations exploring the dream and dystopian states of Asian America.
LEE Wing Ki (b. 1981) is an artist-researcher-curator born and based in Hong Kong. He read History of Art at the University of Hong Kong and received postgraduate training in documentary photography and photojournalism at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, supported by a British Chevening Scholarship. Lee is currently an assistant professor in photography at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University; and a visiting researcher at the Centre of the Study of the Networked Image, London South Bank University.
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Artist Talk: ‘Queer Futurity’
Join us for the first artist talk of ‘WOMEN我們: From Her to Here’ !
The talk brings together presentations from three participating artists, TT Takemoto, Madeleine Lim, and Heesoo Kwon to reflect on the theme of the “Queer Futurity”. With moving images being their main medium, the artists will share how they express themselves as well as the possibilities of queerness via their artistic practises. From diving into historical footages, documenting the queer movements, to creating a metaverse, these presentations aim to reflect the different female desires and the longing of queer existences. The talk also invites scholar Dr. Denise Tang, curator Hoi Leung and Hong Kong artist Kalen Lee to further unpack the possibilities for persuading a nonbinary future.
Feel free to explore the virtual exhibition before the talk!
This free event will take place on Zoom. Click on ‘Get Tickets‘ to register and receive the meeting link.
Introduction of the speakers:
TT Takemoto (b.1967 , based in San Francisco)
TT Takemoto is a queer Japanese American artist and scholar exploring Asian American history, sexuality, and identity. Their experimental films delve into hidden dimensions of same-sex intimacy and trauma that exists within Asian and Asian American archives. Takemoto interacts with found footage and archival materials through labor-intensive processes of painting, lifting, and manipulating 16mm/35mm film emulsion using scotch tape, razor blades, and nail polish. By engaging with tactile and sensory dimensions of queer histories, Takemoto conjures up immersive fantasies involving butch surgeons, femme fish filleting, and homoerotic breadmaking. Their films honour queer Asian Americans who lived, loved, and labored together during the pre-war era and beyond.
Madeleine Lim (b.1964, based in San Francisco)
Madeleine Lim is the founding Executive/Artistic Director of Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP). As one of a small number of queer women of color filmmakers on the international film festival circuit in the late 90’s, she saw that only queer women of color would tell their own authentic stories. Decades ahead of mainstream conversations about gender and racial equity in film, she founded QWOCMAP in 2000. Her belief was that a community of filmmaker-activists could change the craft of filmmaking and the leadership of social justice movements. Under Madeleine’s leadership, QWOCMAP’s award-winning Filmmaker Training Program has nurtured the creation of over 450 films, the largest catalog of LBTQ+ BIPOC films in existence.
Madeleine is an award-winning filmmaker with over 25 years of experience as a producer, director, cinematographer, and editor. Her films have screened at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, including the Vancouver International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and Amsterdam Amnesty International Film Festival. Her work has been featured at universities, museums, and broadcast to millions on PBS. Her film Sambal Belacan in San Francisco (1997) remains banned in Singapore.
Heesoo Kwon (b.1990, based in San Francisco and Seoul)
Heesoo Kwon is a visual artist and anthropologist from South Korea and is currently based in the Bay Area, California. Kwon received her Masters of Fine Art from UC Berkeley in 2019. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Et Al and Studio 2W, San Francisco; Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley; and CICA Museum and Visual Space Gunmulsai, South Korea. She has participated in group exhibitions at the CICA Museum; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; 47 Canal, New York; Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco; Slash Gallery, San Francisco; and Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK, among others. In 2012 Kwon received the Female Inventor of the Year Award from the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Her other accolades include the Young Korean Artist Award from the CICA Museum, a finalist in the 20th Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival, a finalist of the Sheffield DocFest Arts Programme, and the Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize for Photos and Art Practice from UC Berkeley, and a finalist of the Queer | Art | Prize of recent works in 2021.
Dr. Denise Tang is Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies and Associate Dean in Teaching and Learning at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Her research specializes in gender and sexualities with specific focus on lesbian desires and transgender masculinities in an inter-Asian context. Prior to entering academia, Tang was program manager and HIV testing counselor for communities including Asian & Pacific Islander LGBTQI+, survivors of sexual violence, First Nations women and youth in San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver B.C.
Hoi Leung is a Hong Kong-born, San Francisco-based, curator with a deep sensitivity to neighbourhood dynamics in her curatorial approach. As Chinese Culture Center’s curator, she oversees the center’s exhibitions, public art interventions, and multi-year community-based projects.
Hoi’s recent curatorial projects include: dawn_chourusiii: the fruit they don’t have here by Sofía Córdova (2021), a multi-year project and an experimental video work that foregrounds the stories of six Bay Area women who journeyed to the United States as refugees; and Homing (2020)—a site-specific solo exhibition by Taiwanese sound artist Hung Tzu Ni which explores San Francisco’s unique urban history. Her upcoming project is Cathy Lu’s Interior Garden (early 2022), a major solo exhibition of large-scale ceramic-based installations exploring the dream and dystopian states of Asian America.
LEE Wing Ki (b. 1981) is an artist-researcher-curator born and based in Hong Kong. He read History of Art at the University of Hong Kong and received postgraduate training in documentary photography and photojournalism at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, supported by a British Chevening Scholarship. Lee is currently an assistant professor in photography at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University; and a visiting researcher at the Centre of the Study of the Networked Image, London South Bank University.