Photography Quarterly #61

This publication appears on the occasion of the 1994 program Fire Without Gold: Works by Photographers ofColor, organized by the Center for Photography at WoodstockWoodstock, New York. The photography exhibition curated by Miriam Romais and Christine Jackson, is accompanied by a video exhibit Hybrid Identities, curated by Mona Jimenez. The show travels to Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, during the month of January.

The Center acknowledgessupportfrom theNew YorkStateCouncil on the Arts Visual Artists Program,the NYSCA Electronic Media & Film Programs,the National Endowmentfor the Arts Visual Artists OrganizationsProgram,and FilmNideo Arcs.

This catalogue supersedes PHOTOGRAPHY Quarterly ;,,61, Vol. 15 No. 4, ISSN 0890 4639. Copyright© 1994 the Center for Photography at Woodstock, 59 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York 12498. TEL: (914) 679-9957. FAX: (914) 679-6337. Catalogue essays© 1994 Miriam Romais & Christine Jackson, Alice Lovelace, and Mona Jimenez. All photographs and artists' texts reproduced in this Quarterly are copyrighted by the artists. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission form the Center for Photography at Woodstock. The opinions and ideas expressed in this publication do not represent official positions of the Center.

Printing by Kenner Printing Co. Inc., New York City. Editing and design by Kathleen Kenyon. Text proofreading by Joan Munkacsi. Composition by Digital Design Studio, Kingston, New York.

The PHOTOGRAPHY Quarterly is distributed by Bernhard De Boer, Inc., 113 East Centre Street, Nutley, New Jersey, 071 I 0, and Desert Moon Periodicals, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Susan Fowler-Gallagher, Rollin Hill, George Holz, Colleen Kenyon, Ellen Levy,James Luciana, Betty Marks, Elliott Meisel, Marc Miller, Joan Munkacsi, Jose Picayo, Lilo Raymond, Ken Shung, Alan Siegel, Tom Wolf.

STAFF: Executive Director, Colleen Kenyon; Associate Director, Kathleen Kenyon; Executive Assistant, Lawrence P. Lewis; Program Assistant, Derek Johnston.

FALL ARTS ADMINISTRATION INTERNS: Kate Menconeri and Rachel Polaud (France).

SUMMER WORKSHOP INTERNS: Kate Menconeri, Jojo Weinberg, and Steve Weisberg.

LIBRARIAN: John Dydo.

ADVISORY BOARD: Norton Batkin, Charles BiasinyRivera, Ellen Carey, Philip Cavanaugh, Penelope Dixon, Susan Ferris, Cheryl Finley, Julie Galant & Martin Bondell, Beth Gates-Warren, Howard Greenberg, Sue Hartshorn, Bill Hunt, Greg Kandel, Peter Kenner, Laurie Kratochvil, Ronald Kurtz, Peter MacGill, Ann Morse, Sandra S. Phillips, J. Randall Plummer, Ernestine W. Ruben, Julie Saul, Susana Torruella-Leval.

PHOTOGRAPHY Quarterly single issue: U.S.A. $7 donation/ $9 postpaid. International/ Canada/ Mexico/ $12 postpaid. SUBSCRIPTIO S: To receive the PHOTOGRAPHY Quarterly, you become a SubscribingMember U.S.A. $25 a year/ Canada/Mexico $40 / International $45.

NOTE: An error was published in Center Quarterly,#59 in "Pro Re Nata: Art & Healing," by David Levi Strauss, on page 7 it states "That show included large photographs of Wilke (by Dennis Cowley) in the final stages of lymphatic cancer, as well as her last sculptures and drawings." These photographs were actually the works of Hannah Wilke and Donald Goddard, her husband. Hannah organized and setup shots, and Donald photographed them. Dennis Cowley is the photographer that photographed the installation in the gallery. All of the reproductions published require his credit, but he is not the one who actually photographed Hannah Wilke.

-Amanda M. Smith, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Inc., NYC, NY

kathleen kenyon

works by photographers nt

Laura Aguilar, Albert Chong, Allan de Souza, David Lee, Jolene Rickard, Yong Soon Min

BUILDING LINKS is the Center's educational initiative, created in 1991 during a National Endowment for the Arts Advancement process, designed to bridge the gap between artists and qudiences. We seek increased opportunity to strengthen existing connections and to make new ones between our artistic programs and our artistic home; among our education, exhibition, and publication programs; between our organization and other arts organizations; and---our most challenging connection-between those who make art and those who can be enriched by it. We have presented BUILDING LINKS as a special educational event for three consecutive years to create abridge between artists and audiences.

In 1992 we showcased Encountering Difference an exhibition curated by Elizabeth Ferrer. 1993 saw us present Picturing Ritual curated by Cornelia H. Butler. The 1994 BUILDING LINKS program is Fire Without Gold co-curated by Miriam Romais and Christine Jackson. The exhibition is tied to a catalogue (in the form of this special issue of our magazine), a video exhibition and a film screening. BUILDING LINKS film programs are hosted at Bard College to increase our reach to a regional assembly. This program travels to other venues in order to inform a larger audience.

These exhibitions of photography, film, and video are catalysts around which we focus an educational panel, open to the public, free of charge. Panels provide curators and artists the opportunity to have a conversation with the local, regional, and rural community audiences. This is a time for the audience to "meet the artist," exchange new ideas, and focus on issues in the visual and media arts and on questions pertaining to the culture.

The Fire Without Gold A Call forAction panel with Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Bill Gaskins, and Jolene Rickard, moderated by Miriam Romais and Christine Jackson, investigates concepts of multiculturalism: What can artists, students, and educators do to increase knowledge of works by people of color?What resources are available? How can opportunities be made available to artists of all cultures? How can curators and people in positions of power exhibit these works as legitimate art and not just as an outreach program?

We give acknowledgment to the crucial role our visual sense plays in the process of learning. As a natural extension of this sense, photography, film, and video are catalysts for the development of communication and for who we are in the world.

-Kathleen Kenyon, Associate Director, the Center for Photography at Woodstock

Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, New York

October 15 - December 20, 1994

fire without gold

Pfuitc~ co-curated by Miriam Romais and Christine Jackson. Works by Laura Aguilar, Albert Chong, Allan de Souza, David Lee, Jolene Rickard, and Yong Soon Min. The exibition travels and can be seen-in a slightly different fomi-at the Jamaica Center Subway Station in Queens as part of the MTA!Arts for Transit Exhibition Programs, sponsored by the Organization of lndendent Artists through Marrh 1995.

hybrid identities

V,J..,e,o curated by Mona Jimenez. Works by Luis Valdovino, Fatimah Tobing Rony, Kip FuJbeck, Ina Diane Archer, and Mona Smith.

a call for action: multicultural inclusion in photography

P~: Sawrday, October 15, Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Bill Gaskins, Christine Jackson, Jolene Ricka1·d, and Miriam Romais address cultural issues of self representation, race, gender discrimination, and its consequences. The free panel, open to the public, is held at the Center gallery.

same difference f~ curated by Cheryl Dunye. November 11, 12, 13, Preston Theatre, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Works by Daresha Kyi, Charles Burnell, Randy Redroacl, Helen Lee, Saundra Sharp, Coco Fusco/PauJa Heredia, Tony Cokes/Don Trammel, Luis Valdovino, Cyrille Phipps/Not Channel Zero, Marina Alverez/Ellen Spiro, Michael Cho, Isaac Julien, Ela Troyano, Danny Acosta, Ming-Yuen S. Ma, Cheryl Dunye.

Laura Aguilar, Will Work For #I, 1993 4 1/,x2 3/,, silver print postcard

PicturingRitual 1993 panel: FamiliarGenres/New Strategies. Shown (I tor): Cornelia H. Butler, Elaine Tin Nyo, and Gregory Crewdson. (Photo: Ben Caswell)

FireWithou<Goui 1994 panel: A Call for Action. Shown (I tor): Karen Chambers, Jolene Rickard, Charles Biasiny-Rivcra, Bill Gaskins, and Miriam Romais. (Photo: Steve Weisberg)

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"Theyusuallyhavecomethroughcolleges and havebeenassaulteddayin andday out by varioustheoriesof howwhiteexpression is theonlykindof art; of howa whitedescriptionof theworld is theonlydescriptionwhichisprofoundor beautiful. And so whenwe say creativity, whenwe say kuumba, we meanan originalcreativity thatspringsfromoutof ourownresourcesratherthan an imitationof thosewho exploitus."

©

Fire Without Gold ... the idea, the challenge,the exhibit... was bornout of a love-hate relationship:a love of culturalself-expression and a hatredof the institutionalizedracismthat keepsartistsof colorfeelingalienatedand unappreciatedby thosein mainstreamart circles. More specifically,Fire Without Gold was born out of one African-American student's frustation with the art education that caused her to personallyquestionher own values and goalsas a photographer,and to anguishover heropportunitiesfor success(havingbeengiven only limitedrepresentationsof rolemodelslike herself) It was alsoborn out of the disappointment felt by a Brazilian-Americanstudent of photographywho questioned the lack of images that reflect the lives and views of third-worldand other non-White peoplesand theirculturalcontributionsto the art world.

This is the story of two photographers/ curators,and it is the story of the very generous photographerswho lent their works to this exhibit. It is about their collectivelives, their images, and their cultures. This is also a universal story about culture and selfexpression, about learning, about teaching, about sharing, and most importantly, about takingresponsiblityfor change.

© Karen Chambers is a freelance writer, based in Howell, New Jersey.

Alan de Souza, It began with the little things ... , I 990s, from the series Indian Aphorisms, I Ox811 mixed media framed color collage with 10x8" framed text on plexiglass

1987 Amiri Baraka, "Black Art," The Black Scholar, 1987.

f; re wi·t/4out;rnll: works by photographers nt

Every year thousands of students are given diplomas for their anemic and culturally deficient education. We ask ourselves:

Why is it that a photography student will view just a handful of slides of work by photographers of color throughout an entire college career? How are students, regardless of their cultural background, supposed to understand the impact on photographic history of artists of various nationalities if they aren't even recognized by "history"? Why can't we easily name a number of African-American, Latino/a, Native American, or Asian-American photographers as quickly as we name White photographers? Why should an eager African-American photography student, or any student, have to do extensive personal reasearch to discover the contribution of such pioneers as Roy deCarava, "the founding father of black photography"? 1 Or in cases where other photographers of color are featured, why are works limited to James Van Der Zee or Gordon Parks ( one deceased and the other almost triple our age)? What about the living, breathing photographers of color and theirworks?

Although photography was introduced in Brazil only six months after its invention, why have works by early and contemporary Brazilian photographers never been recognized? More importantly, why aren't there more educators, decisionmakers, people in positions of power, and students actively seeking answers to these questions?

When teachers are asked why work by our people aren't seen in many classes, the usual response is that they just don't have the time, energy, budget money, interns, or resources to obtain images by photographers of color. Or in some cases the inexcusable misconception that there aren't many photographers of color is actually given as an answer. Unfortunately, too many art or photographic history courses are like this, despite the brilliance that our educators possess within their own areas of specialization.

Curicula from the beginning (Art History 101 and 102) barely touch on the subject of artists of color, and with photography being the neglected bastard child of art to begin with, photographersof color are not mentioned. So if a student wants

to learn about "third-world artists" he or she has to take a special class that is offered only once a year ( if that often) and is scheduled at a time that conflicts with classes required for graduation. Now, if you were to flash a slide of work by Henri Cartier- Bresson, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, or Lewis Hine in front of us, you can well believe that we could tell you not only who the photographer was but also the year the image was taken, the title, the location, the camera used, and the story behind the photograph. There is a major imbalance here.

The basic problem is the continuing refusal by the powers that be in the art world to research such history-history that uncovers truth and reflects reality. Artists and students of art should not be left with an unfinished grasp of how art connects with reality. There is no longer room for complacency or excuses. Addressing and correcting these problems are the responsibility of everyone, not just people of color. It should be our collective goal, if need be, to wake up and educate those too unaware of how to do the work themselves.

Will we always remain the little devil who sits on the museum director's shoulder, making him or her feel guilty and obligated to at least fulfill their "quota?" Will we continue to be token minorities, temporarily visible until it's time for the curators to go back to their real agendas? Let's be honest about this. Are exhibitions by people of color happening with more frequency because we are finally there, or is it (more than likely) because we have become requirements for grants from major funders? Is any effort better than complete omission?

We are not experts, but we are tired of attending conferences where we pat each other on the back about what we have accomplished and leave it at that. How about Native American art conferences, where none of the panelists are Native American? Or discussions about current trends in curating that do not even mention a person of color? Yes,of course we have traveled quite a distance, but we can't stop here, lest we are willing to witness a serious backlash.

The Museum of Modern Art, in a recent New Acquisitionsexhibition, featured

fire: thepowerofartwork, thedrive, and thedesiretocreate

about three hundred photographs, of which a handful were taken by people of color (okay, two handfuls). Now, after all the flak they received about the Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century exhibition, we can see them scrambling to brush the cobwebs off their Latin American pieces in the collection to incorporate them into their permanent exhibition space. Not a moment too soon.

Let's move on to the media. American Photo's special section in January of 1994 featured "Photography's Top 100." However, only four of the one hundred "movers and shakers" mentioned were persons of color, and only one of those was a photographer. Are we to believe that there are no photographers of color worthy of being ranked among the "Top 100?" In all fairness, the article's introduction does admit that the list is "terribly subjective," but it also goes on to say that the listings are the success stories of people who have helped make photography more important "in our world." 2 Whose world?

Although we have pointed out some basic problems (for the benefit of those who have been lulled to sleep by the everyday rhetoric of the mainstream art world), we still need to focus on solutions. As Johnnetta Cole, president of Spelman College states, "We can critique the major museums. We can talk about the art establishment. We can critique the art critic. But the folks we must critique first are ourselves, because if we are not, as part of these institutions, raising questions that might provoke a change in the attitudes of our society, then we are not producing welleducated women and men." 3

Many people and organizations have been working toward artistic and racial equity for decades, but there is still plenty of work to be done to prevent generations of artists, students, and educators from continuing to perpetuate Eurocentric values. More of us should be teaching, whether it be through exhibitions, after-school programs, internships, or independent study for college credit. Furthermore, we ought to be consciously working to break the vicious cycle that results in miseducated students going on to become miseducated teachers. It is up to us to create our own opportunities for advancement, become

those people in position_s of power that pave the way for others to follow. We are talking about empowerment. We are talking about mentorship.

Wc,J,«&j,Pf..,c~ -0? C--Ol-0-t,features: A~, fl,f,,k,;t ~, A~ J.e ~, Da-v-ulLu, J~ R~, Y~ M~, whose art deals with personal aspects of their lives, and the experiences of their diverse cultures. The exhibition at the Center for Photography in Woodstock, Fire Without Gold, is about giving artists the opportunity to let themselves be heard.

l « 1-« « ,., l « 1-'s work thrives on breaking stereotypes positively, especially when the work applies to how people of all colors, sizes, and sexual preferences are portrayed by the media. The allure of her subjects is that they are proud and unashamed of their bodies, as in her series Clothed/Unclothed, which invites the viewer to confront his or her own physical and mental inhibitions. In the four-part series Don't Tell Her Art Can't Hurt Aguilar uses text to articulate her anger, reinforcing it with the fact that she is placing a gun in her mouth. An excerpt of the text reads, "If you're a person of color and take pride in yourself and your culture, you use your art to give a voice, to show the positive. So how do the bridgesget built if the doors are closed to your voice and your vision?"

Aguilar's work has been highlighted in Latin American Art, Nueva Luz, Culturefront, and Art in America. Her exhibitions include Bad Girls at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, New York, and Aperto '93: Emergency, I.a Biennale di Venezia, in Venice, Italy.

al.(,. e 1, t c !., -0,,,.,,{s photographs convey his spiritual and religious concerns through various objects evocative of rites and rituals in honor of what he calls obscure deities. In the powerful images of The Throne series, offerings of food, drink, and objects that are culturally or spiritually infused are offered around or upon thrones that are meant to attract, appease, or seat these deities. Chong states, "As a Black man living under the pressures of Western civilization, I have tried to penetrate a deeper under-

Jackson gold: the glory, the praise, and the recognition

Laura Aguilar, B, from the Clorhed/Unclorhedseries, 1994 diptych No. 34 (32x20"), silver print

standingof man, his originsin Africa, and his mystic heritage-the heritage-of the king, the sage, the warrior,the slave, the musician, the artist, the tillerof the soil, the wielderof fire, and the magical heaLer.These aspects of an ancient heritagehave emergedin my work."

A faculty member of the Department of Fine Arts at the University ofColoradoBoulder, Chong has received a 1994 CO Visions Recognition Award from the Colorado Council on the Arts, a regional National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Fellowship in Photography, as well as a 1992 National NEA Fellowship in Photography. His latest accomplishment includes Ancestral Dialogues: The Photographs of Albert Chong, published by the Friends of Photography in San Francisco, Califomi~, and an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, curated by Deborah Willis-Braithwaite.

a, l l a, ,,,._, J, e -i c «- 1- a,, currently living in Los Angeles, was born in Kenya, emigrating to England as a child. His series Indian Aphorisms explores the boundaries of home and identity: 'These fragments,these visionsplayed out behindmy eyelids, are not just dreams, but imaginingsof a place I call home. Home exists... if only within the boundariesof my body. Through thesevisions, home is extrapolated, given form, moulded into memory. Through memory, I know these places exist. Who is to say this is a delusion? Who willsay, to my face, that I haveno home, no place I can call mine , no place I can say I belongto?Just a sequenceof temporaryshelters. Endlesslymovingon. Endlesslyleaving."

deSouza's current projects include alter idem/performingpersonae, a collaborative installation with Yong Soon Min at Camerawork in London. Some of his exhibit ions include one at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, a video collaboration with Yong Soon Min in the Whitney Biennial, and Family Values at 494 Gallery in New York, curated by Lucy Lippard.

J, a, v J, le e's Snow Hill, Alabama, series takes an innovative approach to portraiture by incorporating the dialogue between his subjects and himself while documenting their lives. He has traveled extensively, passionately documenting people's lives.

A Brooklyn-based Yale graduate, Lee has had work published in the VillageVoice, Spin, Vibe, Essence,and Interview.His work can be seen in the books Songsof my People (Little, Brown Publishing, 1991), Brooklyn: I ts Peopleand Places, Past and Present (Harry Abrams Publishing, 1991), and Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee (published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1991).

Exhibitions of David Lee's work include Songsof My People,an internationally traveling exhibition, and Our Town at Aperture's Burden Gallery in New York City.

'f c ,,,._, -i c c ,,,._,-11-,, ,,,._, ' s Defining Moments consists of six wall panels that incorporate self-representation within a political context. Her work concerns the relationship between being Korean and simultaneously Korean-American. She states, "The personalis political.Self-examination, however, is not the end goal but the means, a process.What matters to me is what I do with this evolvingknowledgeand understanding.Making the connections,discerning relationshipsbetween yourself and your surroundings, and claiminga place for yourself in this culture and in this world is a political act. My artwork allows me to communicate this with others."

is fixed to the ground by jute and stones. Within this hoop are photographs of aceremonial ritual of preparing com for storage, juxtaposed with fragments of past and present culture.

Rickard, of the Tuscarora Nation territories in New York, teaches and is completing her Ph.D. at the University of Buffalo, New York. An artist, lecturer, writer, and curator, Rickard focuses on issues of representation of non-Western peoples. Her most recent exhibition includes Cracked Shell at Light Work in Syracuse, New York.

CC,'l-\,Clt.--t~C,'1-\,

The medium of photography is one that can reflect not only the beauty of the artist's choice of images but also the reality of the artist's perspectives and views on life. In Fire Without Gold we attempt to

Yong is an Assistant Professor at the School of Fine Arts, University of California-Irvine, which has awarded her a 1994 Fine Arts Faculty Research Grant. Other awards include the National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Intemational's Travel Grants Pilot in 1993. In addition to her collaborations with Allan deSouza, Yong Soon Min has exhibited at the Smith College Museum, Massachusetts; The Asia Society Galleries, New York City; and the Whitney Museum, New York City.

j, c l e ,,,._, e 1., c k a, 1.,A's Cracked Shell is a mixed media installation that examines the pressures and "strugglesof native peoplesto livein the Indian way within a postmodern world."6 The duality of her social reality can be seen in this presentation. Cracked Shell is composed of a large aluminum hoop that hangs from the ceiling and

insure that the reality of experience as seen through the eyes of photographers of color is accurately portrayed. Of course, with six photographers, we can only start to examine the broad range of experiences by peoples of color: For example, every definition of Latino/aencompasses twenty-four countries, with different cultures, dialects, and languages. But one of the reasons that we re-curate Fire Without Gold is that doing so allows us to continually add more or new photographers, remaining open to change as our own definitions as peoples of color develop and change with time.

Our formal education left us in the dark. We hope, especially for the sake of future generations, to have these issues and images illuminated. © 1'1'14 '1-

l994 installation, FireWithout Gold, Center for Photography (photo credit: Steve Weisberg)

l. A Talk with Carrie Mae Weems, photographer, on "Personal Perspectives on the Evolution of American Black Photography," Obscura, pp. 9-17.

2. American Photo, "Photography's Top 100," Jan.-Feb. 1994, pp. 61-1-01. (published by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, Inc.).

3. Berger, Maurice "How Art Becomes History," SpeakingOut, pp. 190-194.

4. Fire Without Gold: UncelebratedWorks by Photographersof Color, included works by Dawoud Bey, Andrea Davis, Ricky Flores, Manny Gonzalez, Marilyn Nance, John Pinderhughes, Eli Reed,Wayne Roland, and Ricky Recard. The exhibition was held at the South Gallery, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Jersey, May 13 through June 1, 1991.

5. Fire Without Gold: Documentariesby Photographersof Color featured works by Ricky Flores, Christine Jackson, David Lee, Marilyn Nance, Eli Reed, and Miriam Romais. The show was presented at the Photographic Resource Center, Boston, Massachusetts, June 3 through July 31, 1994.

6 .14 Photographers,exhibition and catalogue, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, November 1983 through Jaunary 1984.

A Shadow Born of Earth: New Photography in Mexico

Elizabeth Ferrer, 1993.

American Federation of Arts, NYC, NY.

Asian Americans: Comparativeand Global Perspectives

Ed. by Shirly Hune and others, 1991. Washington State University Press.

Black Looks - Race and Representation, bell hooks, 1992.

South End Press, Boston, MA.

Available through Light Impressions, Rochester, NY.

Black PopularCulture

A project by Michelle Wallace, edited by Gina Dent, 1992. Bay Press, Seattle, WA.

ExhibitingCultures - The Poeticsand Politicsof Museum Display

Ed. Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, 1991.

Available through the American Council for the Arts Books, NYC, NY.

Museums and Communities - The Politics of PublicCulture

Ed. Ivan Karp, Christine M. Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine, 1992.

Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London.

Available through ACA Books, NYC, NY.

How Art BecomesHistory, Essays on Art, Society, and Culture in Post-New Deal America

Maurice Berger, 1992.

Harper Collins Publishers, NYC, NY.

Mixed Blessings: New Art in MulticulturalAmerica

Lucy Lippard, 1990. Pantheon Books, NYC, NY.

Mistaken Identities

Abigail Solomon Godeau, 1993. University of California. Available through Light Impressions, Rochester, NYC, NY.

Nueva Luz, a photographic journal Published by En Foco, Inc. Bronx, NYC, NY.

PartialRecall- Photographyby Native North Americans

Lucy Lippard, 1992.

The New Press, NYC, NY.

Photographyin Brazil, 1840-1900

Gilberto Ferrez, 1984.

University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.

Voicesfrom the Battlefront- Achieving Cultural Equity

Ed. by Marta Moreno Vega and Cheryll Y. Greene, 1993.

Africa World Press, Inc., Trenton, NJ.

Available through the Caribbean Cultural Center, NYC, NY.

1994 installation, Fire Wiihou, Gold, Center for Photography (photo credit: Steve Weisberg)

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67 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003. 212/673-1021.

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404 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003. 212/598-0100.

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173 East 116th Street, New York, NY 10029. 212/860-5445.

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339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. 212/979-6734.

<:a,1,,i,l.l.ea,1-1, <:"-lt"-1,al <:e1-,,te1, 408 West 58th Street, New York, NY 10019. 212/307-7420.

e1-,, to<:o, ,i,1-1,<:. 32 East Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, NY 10468. 718/584-7718.

1-,,at,i,01-1,al a,110,i,<:at,i,01-,, ct lat,i,1-1,0 a1,t1 a,1-1,J., <:"-lt"-1,e (1-1,ala<:) 1300 Guadalupe Street, San Antonio, TX 78207. 210/271-3151.

1-1,ew 'fo-1,k to"-1-,,Jat,i,01-1, to-1, t!.,e ad1 155 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013. 212/366-9600.

1-,,at,i,01-1,al v,i,1"-al a1,t,i,1t1 a,-1,<;f.,,i,ve N.C.C.U. Art Department, P.O.B. 19555, Durham, NC 27707. 919/560-6391.

01,&a,1-,,,i,Ja,t,i,01-1, ct ,i,1-,,Jepe1-,,Ae1-,,t a1,t,i,1t1 19 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013. 212/219-9213.

p1,ote11,i,01-,,al «101t,,e1-,, pC.,otfJ&-1,apC.,e-1,1 17 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011. 212/255-9678.

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The projectevolvedfrom a challengepresented to us by a faculty member at Rutgers University.Assistance came from individuals at the organizationsEn Foco, Inc., the Studio Museum of Harlem, the SchomburgCenter for Researchin Black Culture, and Empire State College, and photographersEli Reed, Marilyn Nance, Sophie Rivera, and others. The end result was the first entirely photographic exhibitionwith works by contemporary establishedand emergingphotographers of colorever shown at Mason Gross Schoolof the Arts, Rutgers University.4

Fire Without Gold also opened at the PhotographicResourceCenter in Boston this past July. 5 To defy tradition, this exhibition was more of a cooperativeeffort between all of the photographersand ourselves. Works by Eli Reed, David Lee, Marilyn Nance, Ricky Floreswere exhibitedalongwith our own. By erodingthecuratorialpowerstructure,we were all our own curators:all in a positionof power, speakingfrom our own experiences.

-© 1994

Miriam Romaisand ChristineJackson

We would like to extend our gratitude to all the photographers and people who believed in us and supported us through our own personal educational jpumey: Karen Chambers, for her unequivocal style and understanding of the written word; Martha Rosier, for instigating this challenge; Amiri Baraka, for making us understand that it's alright to be angry; Steve Cagan, for his words of encouragement; Diane Neumeier, for her valuable contacts; Charles Biasiny-Rivera, from En Foco, Inc., and Mel Rosenthal, from Empire State College, for their assistance since the beginning; Linda Schoenheimer, from the Organization of Independent Artists, and Dorothy Desir-Davis, from MTA/ Arts for Transit, for seeing that the exhibition is viewed by the widest possible audience; and of course, everyone at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, for giving us the opportunity to present this exhibition and publication.

I guess you gettin' all of us in here anyway, ain't you. Well then, why don't you get in here too.

Momma. Let the man take your picture. Get yourself in a picture.

Yeah, Grandma!

Hush, child! ... Momma you listening?

Miss? You mind if I take your picture?

Yes, I do. I know about it. Know about it?

There's something to it.

I don't know. I'm just photographing. I'm still in school; I'm a student.-lt's for a project. I'm visiting my grandmother back in Snow Hill.

You're gonna sell 'em.

Miss, I'm sorry, but I've never sold a picture in my life. You're gonna sell 'em. And you ain't gonna sell not one of me, at least.

Momma.-You say you studying to be a photographer? He's just studying. Momma. Gonna be a photographer ... Well, I wish you success.

-1h- 1, a, -1h- 1, () -1h- a, -i is a freelance photographer, independent curator, and lecturer, as well as Managing Director for En Foco, Inc., in the Bronx, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting photographers of color through exhibitions, publications, and services to the field. She co-curates FireWithout Gold with Christine Jackson. Her own photographic projects include Pernambuco/Para[ba Sugar, a series documenting sugar-refinery workers in Brazil. This work was shown at the American Labor Museum, Haledon, New Jersey, in December 1994. Romais's new documentary project focuses on Brazilians and Brazilian-Americans living near her home in New Jersey.

c P., 1, 1 t 1'- e j, a, c k 1 () 1'- is a freelance photographer and independent curator based in New Jersey. She studied at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Jackson is the Visual Arts Curator for the Renaissance Gallery in South Orange, New Jersey, and volunteers her curatorial services to the Palette Place, a gallery showcasing artists of color working in all media, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Jackson is collaborating with writer Karen Chambers on a series of photographs and poems entitled Loving.

I aura

My work as a photographerhas come to focus on portraitureas socialcommentary. The imagesdepictdiverselifestylesand beingcomfortable'withoneself, often boldlyrepresented.Many of the subjectsare intended to dispelthe stereotypesarbitrarily createdin this society. They createrole modelsfor others to consider,therebyexpandingthe viewersconsciousness."Normal" is a subjectiveexperienceby which lives are often defined. The imagescaptured throughmy lens expressthe possibilitiesthat exist when one learnsto accept the person within and fully integratesthat with the externalimageothersperceive. I portray self-acceptance, expandingthe viewer'scapacityfor understandingand acceptance.I use the peoplein my photographsto reflect the parts of me that I am. The Lesbian series, and the Clothed/Unclothed seriescame out of issuesin my life. I'm trying to allow the softness of myself to be out and be in thesephotographs.The viewer is as vulnerableas the nude person in the Clothed/ Unclothed series, becauseas they view the imagesthey are seeingimagesof themselves.

Laura Aguilar, Don't Tell Her Art Can't Hurt, 1993 four silver prints each 160x50"

albert

Images of a shamanfigure/ weaving througha personalizedinteriorlandscape/ reminiscentof European colonialportraitsof native peoplesof subjugatedlands instead of fake opulent Europeans~ylebackdrops/ there is crushedburlap. The subjectis the artist I his interpretationof native types of colonialportraitureI revolvingaround political,personal, spiritual,and culturalissues. The crossand its negative/ Christianityin the conquestand colonizationof non-white peoples. The Throne Series/ found chairs/ embellished / dedicatedto Am:estraland other spiritforces.

Chong, Throne for the Keeper of the Bone Yard, 1991, silver print with copper mat, 20x 16"

Albert Chong, Blessing the Throne for Gorilla with Cigar-Smoke, 1993, silver print with copper mat, l 6x20"

Chong, Copper Throne with Feathered Clay Figure, nd, silver print with copper mat, 20xl6 11

I don't know which of my memoriesare my own remembrance,which are tales whisperedto me secretlyas I lay in my bed, or which are ghostlyafterimages,effigiesmummified between the tissue leavesof photo albums. Which have happened,which are • wild imaginings.Which are yearningson my part for memoriesgreater,more colorful, than my present existence.

There is no escape, the prison is everywhere;and "home" exists only within our hearts, no matter what protectivewalls we may build around us.

In some ways, it hardlyseems to matter where I live; in the city or in the country, in which city or in which country. The boundaries between one and another-so fragilein theirdefinition-are beginningto blur. Where does one end, and the other begin?

Looking out my apartmentwindow, the shop signsare in Spanishand Polish. No one else in my buildingspeaks English. Where am l? To say New York, USA, conveys no descriptionof the realityoutside, and even less of my own sense of reality. The question "Where am!?" reverberatesin my head, but it is becomingincreasinglyobsolete.

Accepting your hands to help shape the features of my landscape;acceptingyour hands to expand and focus the horizonsof my vision; lovingmen, lovingwomen, testingthe terrainof a sexuality buffeted and moldedby the storms of struggle.

Remakingour bodies,remakingour selves in our own eyes. Where once the occupierssought to emasculateus, to dis empower us, we seek now to rebalanceourselves,find againmale and female, masculineand feminine within every one.

From the ashen lands of the past, togetherwe seek new territorieswhich as yet are un-named, making a map for each other to follow.

[Editor's note: this text has been excerpted from a longer version.]

Allan de Souza, In all my dislocation , from the series Indian Aphorisms, 1990s 8xl0" mixed media framed color collage with 8xl0" framed text on plexiglass

If I ask myself what I hope to achievewith my artwork, a whole can of worms is exposed, beginningand endingwith the question of what is art anyway?

What is its function in society?

After threedrafts of a statement, I've finally given up, and instead I'll ask myself what impact I'd like my work to have on the viewer.

My goalsare to evoke some sense of kinshipin "unexpected"circumstances.

I feel I have a socialconscience,yet I don't attempt to championany causes, at leastnot with a two-by-four. A hyperactivefeelingof empathy allowsme to try to treat my subjectswith dignity,and in a sense, dignityand respect addup to a quality of beauty.

I think that all of my subjectsare beautiful. Some live under sad or deplorableconditionsand I loathethe idea of patronizingor exploitinganother'spoverty.

My interest takes me into "thirdworld" environments, like Harlem and Soweto.

I feel qualifiednot to judge, but to comment.

I have a socialobligationto document hardships,a compassionto love and share, and an empatheticnature that allows my subjects'pride to shine.

I wish the viewer to feel as I do about my subjects, to feel engagedin a dialogue.

There's beauty in the pain of a tear, beauty in grieving,and joy in seeingan unbent spirit.

Hi again, Cousin Bubba.

Eh, there, boy.

I'm not gonna bring the bike in, I'll just leave it at the door alright? ...

Whoo! I'm tired! I just biked back from ... wait. .. Pine Bottom. No, Pink Bottom. That's about ten miles each way?

Yeah? Hunh?

Yep... I'll just buy me a soda back here. Yea. All the way out to Pink bottom, shooting. Photographing. I hope I got some nice stuff. Phew. Can barely catch my breath! Don't wanna do that again soon.

Yeah? What's that.

Sorry? Oh, Pink Bottom. I'm through for the day. I was gonna shoot some more, closer to home, but not anymore. Oh.

Yeah. And I passed through Minter and shot alot there, too. How much is this.-lt's hot out there, too.

Twenty-six.

Twenty cents?

Twenty-six.

Oh. Alright ... Yeah, I'm beat. Dead tired.

Yeah. Say. Where you been out today on that bicycle . . (sigh) PINK BOTTOM. AND MINTER. I BIKED TO PINK BOT-TOM

David Lee, Cousin Bubba, the Snow Hill Alabama series, 1982, silver print and text, 8 1/zx Ir

jolene

Cracked Shell is a visual conditionreport on our lives within the territoriesof the Haudenosaune. A warningand.an honoring,Cracked Shell floats on the back of the great turtle where Skywoman fell and broughtour kind to this world.

Cracked Shell is made from the pounding of our corn. The dust becomesmush and feeds the spiritswhichprotect us. Cracked Shell locatesthe scarson the land that ooze toxins. The chemicalindustry landedin NiagaraFalls, New York during the 1940s and pumped the worst poisonsfrom the twentiethcentury into the Niagara River whichpours into Lake Ontario.

Love Canal, Bloody Run, and Modern Landfillsurround the Tuscaroraboundaries.The tailingsfrom the Manhattan Project were used as fill for the road where I grew up.

Cracked Shell is the demonstrationsof the insidelookingout and the outside lookingin. It is the ideologicaldivide that was illustratedby the Two Row Wampum upon contact with the West.

I pull the smoke from tobacco,corn dust, and strontium 90 into my body as I give thanksfor life within the territoriesof the TuscaroraNation.

Cracked Shell is the skin that connects my life to yours.

Jolene Rickard, Cracked Shell, I 994 16 pieces, mixed media: color and silver prints, stones, and jute, 101 diameter, (installation in Syracuse, New York)

yong

The impetusfor the work Defining Moments was the impact (as well as the implications)of the Los Angeles civil eruption in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict on Korean Americans. I wanted to accountfor this event as one of a seriesof watershed "moments" in Korean and Korean American history. This histor_icmoment, designatedby its date-4/29/92-is inscribed on my torso in the initialimage, and has a specificpersonalconnection. This date coincideswith my birthday,therebyliterally illustratingthe feminist dictum that the personalis the political.

Other significantdates are arrangedin a spiraloriginating from my be1lybutton-1953-the end of the Korean War and the year of my birth. 4/ 19/60-I witnessedthe popularuprisingwhich toppledthe Syngman Rhee government and immigratedlater that year to the United States. 5/ 18/80-The Kwangju uprisingand massacregalvanizedthe oppositionin Korea to military dictatorships.It was the catalyst to my reclaiminga radicalhistoryof politicalstrugglein Korea. Each of thesedates is illustrated by the overlayof photographicdocumentationof these events onto my face. The displacedpsyche of the Korean peopleis symbolizedby my fragmentedbody.

The last imagein Defining Moments does not correspondto an historicdate but looks to the future and its possibilities.In concludingwith the imageof Mt. Paektu, ( the site of the mythologicaloriginof the Korean nation and its peoplelocatedin North Korea), which has been appropriatedas a symbolfor thosein the strugglefor the reunificationof Korea, I allude to the possibilityof wholenessand unificationof a dividednation.

Yong Soon Min, 1992 from the six~part series Defining Moments, silver print, ZOxl611

a C a I I

Once again the alarm has been sounded; the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is under attack (and the other side is winning). You say so what? After twenty-nine years the NEA spends more money on reports and studies than it does in our communities. Problem is, we all know that how goes the NEA, so goes state, local, and private funding. It means that our communities will see even less return on their tax dollars. It means the artistic and cultural contributions of an entire generation of artists who seek to enrich and empower the daily lives of their people will be jeopardized. It means that artists of color will find a lot of paperwork and a cold shoulder in Washington and in their hometowns.

At the August board meeting the National Council (NEA's Board of Directors) voted to reject three fellowships in photography. They refused to support the peer panel's decision to award fellowships to Andres Serrano (of 'piss Christ' controversy), Merry Alpern, and Barbara de Genevieve. And the beat goes on. Barbara de Genevieve issued a statement in which she concludes, "This battle is about fear-the fear of the realness of human experience. It's also about representation and meaning and who will control access to knowledge."

At the same August meeting the impressive Artists' Projects Regional Initiative, a thirteen-region, public/private partnership between NEA's Presenting & Commissioning Program, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, was put on hiatus until the November meeting of the National Council. This action puts all re-granting programs on the cutting block. It is in the regional re-granting programs that we have found the greatest support and respect for the 'service' we perform.

Where are the voices of the artists who have benefited from these re-granting programs? Where are the letters to the Civil Rights Division at the NEA to document our voice and our stories in this onslaught? Where are our advocacy groups?

The U.S. House of Representatives h;:is::ipproved a 2 per cent cut in funding for the N.E.A.; the Senate has approved a 5 per cent cut .. At the Endowment (its letterhead and envelopes read, "The Federal agency that supports the visual, literary and performing arts to benefit all Americans) the legislative cuts will slice deepest into the Visual Arts, Presenting and Commissioning, and Theater programs. Each program has been asked to project what it would look like with a forty per cent cut in funds. This action is dangerous to every artist, and artists' organizations, and the multilayered cultural/ethnic voices that are the United States of America. Clearly, the cuts being proposed internally exceed chose awaiting legislative vote.

These three programs, along with Expansion Arts, have given the most to support

t 0 C 0 m

alternative, community-based, and ethnic organizations and artists. Why is Jane Alexander placing the weight of these cuts on the programs that light up the corners and forgotten rooms of our country?

As the trend of cutting and re-allocation continues, millions of dollars in matching support from foundations and corporations are funneled into "major European centers of art" to assist them in rebutting the "onslaught" of multiculturalism and the browning of America. These 5ame people exhibit the bones of our ancestors like artifacts; reproduce our ethnic inheritance as research; and then pronounce our cultures dead or dying. They reduce us to notes in the margin.

They are "awarded" millions of dollars in grants and are recognized nationally for "trying" to help. They help themselves, luring away our best and brightest with fully funded programs, salaries, and benefits that they are able to afford because of public and private funding.

Community-based arts programs and community artists must not become the new buzzwords for funders. However, if we do not define our work and our philosophy for ourselves, we stand to go the way of "Audience Development," "Outreach Programs," and "Multiculturalism." Will our vision and our arts become a means for "mainstream Eurocentric arts organizations" to improve their bottom line at our expense?

This is a call to my community, people committed to cultural democracy and inclusion, the artist/cultural worker. This is a call to act and, by acting, to activate the arts at the core of community life, to stir up the melting pot, and allow the sediment to rise to the top. For it is in the sediment that the rich nutrients lie, the nutrients that can, and will, bring about qualitative and quantitative change-social change for artists, artists' organizations ar,id the community.

I believe at this stage some definitions are called for, so I offer my humble definitions of "community" and "community-based artist": Community: The dictionary defines it as society, us as a whole. For the sake of this article I define community as an assemblage of interacting IJOpulations who hold this United States as a joint possession; who, together and apart, seek expression and enjoyment; and who, together, assume the liability for our actions. Because communities touch and intersect, ebb and flow, we can belong to several at the same time.

Community-based artist: An artist dedicated to the making of art in one or more media, who selects to serve one or many communities, a geographic place, or specific group. A community-based artist utilizes the creative force of the arts to celebrate, clarify, expose, confront, lament, and acknowledge his or her chosen communities. Communitfbased artists

believe this "service" to community lifts one to a position of value in the lives of those served.

Look around you: You will find us leading a song at the "stop the violence" rally, making posters for the A I OS benefit, teaching Langston's poetry to seven-year-olds, training inmates in Dunham's technique. You will find us in rural communities and urban neighborhoods. The recipients of our service are the only ones who can validate our art. We communirybased artists are committed to contributing our talents, passion, educational dissemination, and cultural survival to our acknowledged communities.

In the notes from her upcoming book, Theater of Em/)owerment from the No-Neck Monster Theater Company, Kate Hammer describes us as "artists of great depth and commitment, professionals with training, experience and vision [who) are invisible to many of their colleagues and possible patrons because their mission takes them away from the mainstream."

Then there is the "invisible" community of artists: This applies to everyone from folk artists to alternative artists-an army: malc/female/nati ve(ind igenous/foreign-born. Too naturally tan and naturally "alien" in their way of thinking and acting in the world, they are the great unserved and under-represented, who do not have access to organizations, funding, or information. Their art is exploited. They are not paid, at underpaid. Opportunity for growth is limited and, in some communities, nonexistent. Their work and ideas are confined to the margin. Their voices are lo§t in the bureaucratic shuffle of papers.

All artists are targets in this game out of control. No one can win in a 'holier than thou' struggle, which equates the artist with witch and devil while upholding a narrow idea of the imported arts of Europe aso_:irclassical national treasures.

The "Art Police" are beating on the studio door, intent on extinguishing the fires of cultural democracy.

I had an opportunity to witness this madness firsthand during an Artist-In-Education residency at an elementary school in Evans, Georgia. Evans is an odd mixture of poor longterm residents and those who have moved into the newly developed high-scale bedroom comm uni ties. They sleep in Evans but work in Augusta or at the Savannah River plant.

Ten days into my residency, my name and character were attacked by two couples who, without ever meeting me or attending my classes, decided to call a press conference and declare that I was a "devil worshipper." Their evidence? First: l was teaching students to write "praise poems" in the West African tradition of the Yoruba culture. My students' poems were characterized as satanic verses. Second: I wear my hair in the Rastafarian tradition of locks, and they feared that the beads and the twists

were frightening their children. Third: I wrote a play ten years ago with the word "devil" in the title.

The local newspapers gave these new pilgrims front-page coverage, and the rtext day the Associated Press Wire Service spread their words across the state to every media. Across Georgia to North Carolina, the "Rush Limbaugh's" oLthe airwaves repeated those words. Of the many letters to the editor printed in the Columbia County and Augusta papers, the most chilling comes from the former chair of the Columbia Republican Party. In her letter, Ms. Quinn admits:

A look at the players in this staged event seems to confirm one thing .... All have ties to the Columbia County Republican Party. The main organizer, Rose Young, and her husband, Jimmy have been activist since they led the move to promote Pat Robertson [for President]. It would appear that some of our Republican leaders ... remain intellectually in the 1600's with the Salem witch hunts.

One thing-that set the stage for the "Art olice," happened in this past decade. The 1n;1ediagives generous coverage to zealots like 1 1 tfie Rev Wildmoon, Pat Robertson, and the growin number o xenoph-obes working in service of a twisted idea of fundamentalist Christianity soiled by co;p;ilent politics. Their goal: to reinforce the wall of elitism that the mavens of western culture have constructed between artists' and the rest of the community. These people, along with those politicians and professional arts ad inistrators who serve and fear tpe'm, elieve they shquld define history, art, moral· y, and (amily~alues for everyone. They re "new pJlgrims," sabotaging the reputation of "new witches"-we artists who celebrate the creative individual spirit.

We "new wirches" (also known as community anists Qr s:ultural workers) take pride in stepping outside of the E-urocentric xenophobia that permeates the arts in the United States. Our work is to create something holisticsomething that speaks to our identity as a multiethnic people actively-drawing from living continental cultures. Our wo_d<.isinformed by the artistic, cultural"and ethnic ways of people-native, indigenous, and imported.

Kate Hammerisees us as "gumbo, a spicy stew where eatli. 'ingredient' shares its flavor while retainiµg its unique zing. ~hat is emerging from the 'enforced silence of earlier eras is a dizzying polmhony. Artists are becoming selfaware about their identities and alignments while adventurous community-oriented people are becoming artists."

As artists working outside of the Eurocentric aesthetic, we must organize to protect our (ield (e-aGhother) and our collective communities.

We must do our share of this nation and community building. Every cultural worker/artist has his or her own model for this work. My role model is Paul Robeson. Chilean poet Pablo Neruda captures the essence of our task in his tribute to Robeson, excerpted here from a translation by Jill Booty:

.. .sing for us all, for those who live by fishing by hammering nails with battered hammers, spinning cruel threads of silk, pounding paper pulp, printing, sing for all those sleepless in prisons, awake at midnight

The challenge of organizing around our calling as artists are great, given the issues of race, class, and gender, which divide our thinking and our efforts. It would be foolish if I did not acknowledge that one person's paradise is another's Armageddon. History documents that we have not always been able to represent ourselves in a manner that would lay to rest society's fear and distrust of us, to say nothing of our fear of each other

In these times we cannot afford to throw away any sector of the community. We must become activist in our own interest. We must not allow those who do not care about our health, our survival, and our profession, to set our agenda, consume our dollars, passion, and tim,e.1n this struggle our power lies in our diversity and ur numbers. Think about how we can support each other and navigate the divisions between us. Think about new models -new ways to be, to act, to make and deliver art.

I dream of a model where artists and the institutions wnich support them forge a relationship with the communities they seek to serve, place art and artist at the core, exchange new idea , present history, and honor diversity. A model where artist-run organizations provide artists with space, opportunities to make art, programs that serve community needs, and new audiences who enter the ongoing "art" conversation.WAmodel where the social and spiritual need5"'of the community set the pace and we are not ashamed to follow. A model where in return (@rour 'service,' artists and artists' organizations receive the nurturing support of the community, the respect of their peers, the inclusion of their contributions and images in the educational systems of this, "our" nation. ln this new model, in this new time, artists and artists' organizations will acknowledge the debt we owe to our people. They are the true creators of culture and weavers of art. It is.from and through them that we draw our inspfration, ideals, and visions.

TOMAHAWKPOEM, ( A Poem of Protection)

I want to write you a Tomahawk Poem

To aid you in your our struggles

Now this Tomahawk Poem will be sharp

Will be treacherous

Will be notched to your grip

Will be singular in purpose

For extracting the fangs

Of your would be profaners

I want you to wear it

This ' don't let anyone get in the way

Of our love' poem

Fondle these lines in the night

Preserve it under your pillow

Employ it to amputate poison

From hemorrhaging tongues

(This Tomahawk Poem is yours)

Carry it with you wherever you go

And if anybody challenges your

Universal humanity

You yank out this poem and ax that action

'Cause this poem is your defense

This poem is yours, when you being

Painter, dancer, writer, singer

Organizer, photographer, teacher

This is your poem

A Tomahawk Poem

A poem you can pick your teeth with Grip the handle, mosaic wood

Sculptured to your hands

A Tomahawk Poem to cut the wood

To fuel the fire of Artistic Cultural Expression

Burning 360 degrees

Art, Uniting Art, Inspiring

Art, Motivating Art, Enlightening

And I want you to wear this poem

Fellow Artists,

Slung across your shoulder

(like an Uzi)

Loaded, cocked and aimed in your defense

This is your Tomahawk Poem

- © 1986 Alice Lovelace

ali.u llweiau is a playwright and an educator active in the national artist-in-education and community based arts movements. Her efforts to use her art in service to her community were rewarded with the 1993 City of Atlanta Mayor's Fellowship in the Arts. Other awards include: the 1990 Bronze Jubilee Award for long-term contributions to the arts, the 1990 Sisterhood of Higher Education Community Service Award, and the Arts Exchange / Paul Robeson Cultural Democracy Award. RememberingMy Birch:New and Collected Poems from Horizons Press, Atlanta, is Lovelace's recent publication. -Article© 1994 Alice Lovelace

Illustration: Art for the Peop!e's Sake by Atlanta artist Severn H. Moses, pen on paper, 1984. From the collection of Alice Lovelace.

y b r

A VIDEO EXHIBITION

Sponsoredby the Center for Photographyat Woodstock

October 15 -December20, 1994

w-01-k "',f\, p1-.0~1,e.u luis valdovino 14:02 minutes 1990

-0,f\, a, ,f\, ,f\, "- .(,_a, l "-Hf\, fatimah tobing rony 6:00 minutes 1994

-,,.o,n..,e qi.,e-,,t"'-0,f\,1 f-01, 2 g k-\-1H1 kip fulbeck 8:30 minutes 1994

1/16tt .of 100% ina diane archer 23 minutes 1993

t.o,f\,.01,eA .t..1 tte ,n..,.().(),f\, mona smith 15 minutes 1990

Support for this program has been received by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts/Electronic Media & Film Program, and the Film Bureau of FilmNideo Arts, NYC.

© 1993 Ina Diane Archer, I/16th of 100%

I sit down to write about hybridity, and Roget'sThesaurusgives me my first definitions. As an adjective "hybrid" is synonymous with mixed, assorted, varied, mongrel; as ·-a noun the suggestions are half-breed, half-blood, half-caste. Granted, I've consulted a 1972 edition, so things could have changed, but somehow I don't think a new edition will give me many new synonyms. When I named my video program Hybrid Identities,I knew the word "hybrid" was problematic-but what is the proper language when describing identities and experiences rising out of mixed cultural backgrounds? The adjective 'mixed' gives a few added synonyms: composite,half-and-half,motley.Scanning down the page I see "mix-up," a verb: to confuse, confound, which is close to ho;V I feel about the topic.

So I look to my own experience for clues, for analogies. From my many gardens I know that in one of its most optimistic definitions, hybridity conjures up images of the new, an experimental (though perhaps not thoroughly tested) mix of the best. Or so science would have us believe-that taking the essential elements of two varieties and combining them with care and thoughtfulness brings forth a stronger set, with results you can depend on, year after year after year.

While the hybrid plant in its steadfastness suggests wholeness, at its heart hybridity implies a heterogeneous mix-two distinctly different cultures, perhaps oppositional or incompatible, and yet combined. With plant culture, there is an assumption that each part brings its own unique and valued qualities; why else would you bother? But obviously human mixing is more complex. When we look to the synonyms that suggest human or animal life, the halves never seem to comprise a whole-half-breed, half-blood, half-caste.I am reminded of my father, a man of a European Spanish father and a Dominican mother, who always wanted to write his autobiography. After he died, we found his notes for this project. He had described his story as one of a "half-breed," and I know in my gut this is a word written from a place of pain, not pride. For like a paraprofessional who objects to the "para" for its "less-than" implication, we know inherent in the term "half-breed" is the assumption of a mix that is not equal.

In this definition of hybridity there is an inescapable element of difference, and also incompatibility and polarity. The words half-breed,half-blood,half-caste,mimic the polarity of institutional racism and class discrimination: purebred(assumed white) and other (assumed of color); bluebloodand mongrel.The myths of racial purity or pedigree status remain, while in reality we are all multicultural mongrels, composites of assorted genetic backgrounds and adopted affinities.

In hybrid~ we see that hybridity provokes for artists more than one meaning. The artists relate cultural mixes imposed by external forces, attitudes about racial and cultural mixing, and personal multiracial or multicultural experiences, which are often difficult. For while one may wish for self-determination in the construction of identity, the realities of a culturally polarized society may eclipse, diminish or counter their positive expressions.

In his video, W~ /-,,,P~, LUIS VALDOVINO reveals an imposed label-that of an illegal alien-forced upon people of Mexican descent who live and work in the United States but who do not have acceptable documentation of these facts. This label, this identity, is socially, economically, and politically constructed by the dominant U.S. culture that holds power on Mexican ancestral land.

Valdovino wastes no time in reminding us that what we know as California was part of the country of Mexico, and the home of peoples descended from the Mayans, an advanced civilization dating to 500 B.C. As he traces the history of the annexation of this territory by the U.S. (in 1848, the same year gold was discovered in this area), we watch as the camera traces a miniature set comprised of doll figures walking along a winding trail. Eventually they reach a fence, a truck of the migras, or border patrol, and we see the border sign "U.S." Emerging on the other side of the border are not figures but their dehumanized form, black ants on a trail north. Combining sets, appropriated sci-fi footage, documentary interviews, and numerous other sets, Work In Progresstells the tale of an imposed hybrid identity, where one's sense of self combines and conflicts with an image of otherness and incompatibility, expressed by immigration policies and media stereotypes. While the tape is at times playful and ironic, this lightness is contrasted with interviews that speak to the true price of the alien designation-farmworkers poisoned by pesticides, young men beaten by police, women raped at the border. Here the mix is not chosen; the cultural polarity created by racism, colonialism, and economic exploitation has concrete destructive effects and is compounded by the underlying pain of being rejected as alien in a place once claimed as home.

As an adjective, the opposite of"alien" is "assimilable," able to be absorbed. Though

© 1990 Luis Valdovino, Work in Progress

© 1994 Kip Fulbeck, Some Questions for 28 kisses

the expression is different over generations, every immigrant struggles with the pulls of the new culture toward sameness, against the desire to remember and celebrate the homeland, and to remain connected to ancestors. For people of color, added to these issues are the representations of one's culture in myriad ways-in media, cultural institutions, educational t,exts, scientific treatises-that are inaccurate, disrespectful, or downright degrading. For both the larger society and for immigrant families, these images start to replace one's own stories, beliefs, and identifications. In FATIMAHTOBING RONY'Svideotape on 01-\,~, one senses the particular danger of assimilation present in the mix of immigrants from tribal cultures and the dominant white culture of a new land.

As a child, Rony believed her parents' place of birth, Indonesia, to be an imaginary place, a fairytale made up to amuse her. She describes a sudden moment of identification with Indonesian tribal culture while watching a Hollywood jungle movie. She not only sees herself in the images, she remembers family stories about the possibility of cannibalism among her grandfather's people. Yet in this tape the clearest form of cannibalism is of a different sort-the devouring of tribal life and culture by Western explorers, photographers, and scientists.

In On Cannibalism Rony picks up the camera and turns it back, in a visually rich, vibrant rephotographing and reclaiming of these anthropological skeletons. As with Work in Progress, the theme of dehumanization and otherness is linked to hybridity; however, in On Cannibalism the construction of identity is an active process of selfdetermination and searching. In the final moments of the tape Rony seeks her ancestor, her face emerging and receding over his, while telling him, "You made me sit on two chairs." While she expresses difficulty with this place, through her questions she seems to ask for guidance, and one feels her moving forward toward a place of strength and clarity.

KIPFULBECKwarns us about~ ,Q~,tw 21? ~, saying, "This video gets people angry," but mostly the tape forces an answer, an individual answer from each person who watches it. Fulbeck skillfully lays out a simple set of images: Asian women and Caucasian man in the throes of romantic love, played out over and over by Hollywood, with male icons the likes of Elvis, Sylvestor Stallone, Agent 007, and John Lennon. The images seem to stream by seamlessly, but the sense of motion is really created by a relentless set of questions that pass along the bottom of the screen. From one of his first "How many times have you seen an Asian man kiss someone on TV?" to his last, "How many times do you see something before it becomes real?" no one is let off the hookAsian women, Asian men, Caucasian men, you, me, or anyone else. Excerpts of personal ads, opinions on interracial dating and gender roles, and statistics on the out marrying of Asians create a cacophonous commentary on the relationship of media images, racial/ethnic mixing, and identity, particularly hapa (half-Asian-Pacific-American) identity.

Some Questions for 28 Kisses exposes the contradictions of the half-blood version of hybridity in a way that is simultaneously confrontational and poetic. Whether we are present on the screen as Asian women and Caucasian men, invisible as Asian men, or simply spectators, Fulbeck challenges us not to simply watch but to think and to look at where we stand on the issues raised.

In INADIANEARCHER'svideo 1/16tf.._ 4 100%,we see how blackness is exoticized, desired, appropriated, and denigrated all at once. In a variation on the theme of the alien other, miscegenation, or racial mixing, is the operative term for hybridity. In the clips Archer uses as source material, black cultural stereotypes are imitated and used for pleasure by and for white audiences, while interracial mixing is expressed as contamination, as a tainting of whiteness.

Archer's tape recalls a 1910 law declaring a colored person anyone with at least 1/ 16th Negro blood. Unlike Fulbeck, Archer does not directly pose questions but simply states definitions of terms that focus our viewing of the tape: appropriation, miscegenation. In 1/16th of 100% it is the images that create the questions; Archer has framed, circled, and split images from "classic" Hollywood films of the 1930's to 1950's where interracial politics are played out.

There is a pathetic quality to Marlene Dietrich's donning a white afro and dancing in front of black natives for the pleasure of Cary Grant, or Frank Sinatra's drawn-out refrain of "Old Man River" to a painfully long conclusion, standing on an elaborate set high in the air, surrounded by majestic white clouds. For while the Showboat rendition of "Old Man River" refers to survival against slave labor and bondage, this meaning is lost in Sinatra's world. In the "Old Man River" sequence, images and sound flip back

© 1990 Mona Smith, Honored by the Moon

© 1994 Fatimah Tobing Rony, On Cannibalism

and forth between two Hollywood versions: between singers Sinatra and Paul Robeson, and between the white cloud set and images of black field labor and jail.

1/ 16th of I 00% also exposes the rejection of black humanity as crystallized into images of taboo and fear surrounding racial mixing. Again, Archer is clever in framing and juxtaposing images to reveal their hidden meaning. In a scene from The Imitation of Life a white teacher realizes there's a mixed blood child in her classroom. Archer places the teacher's face in a narrow space against the right side of the screen and makes the rest of the screen dark. Slowing down the sequence, the teacher's reaction of horror and surprise is exaggerated and becomes comical as she appears to look toward a fjeld of blackness.

While film images such as those in I/ 16th of 100% may become dated, the attitudes that created them remain, played out in a way that make multiracial and multicultural experiences painful. In a poignant ending to Some Questions for 28 Kisses we hear a list of thirteen states that, in the year of Fulbeck's birth, had laws on the books that made illegal the intermarriage of Asians and Caucasians-the union that created him.

The last tape in the program deals with a cultural mix that is still considered aberrant in many mainstream circles, the mix of being gay or lesbian and anything else. Mona Smith's documentary about gay and lesbian Native Americans, Honored by the Moon, is a pleasure, gentle in its pacing and affirming in its message. The tape posits that some Native communities not only accept, but revere gay and lesbian Native people. Gay and lesbian people are believed to have special insight and ability to walk between two worlds-male and female-as connectors and interpreters. The men and women in Honored by the Moon are secure and proud in their identities as gay or lesbian Native people, and embrace the interpretive role, which they see as healing the male/female polarity.

While all gay and lesbian people may not agree with this characterization of gayness, the healing role is consistent with the idea that gay liberation has a freeing and healing effect on all people, offering many more choices for sexual identities and modes of sexual expression. In fact, many multiracial or multicultural people are called upon to take a mediating role among disparate cultures, for better or for worse. While an interpretative role may be helpful in some cases, the in between person may feel pressure to speak about experiences she has not lived (i.e., for all latinas). The role may further distance groups whose perceptions of incompatibility keep them apart, where the mediator becomes not a bridge but a barrier.

Most people, including those who are living multiracial or multicultural lives, wish for a sense of wholeness and for a chance to self-describe and self-identify, and to speak from their own unique place. As I wind up this article and I do a spellcheck on my word processing program, the computer stops everytime it sees the word "multicultural" a word it doesn't recognize. Clearly we have a lot of work to do-we do not yet have a language that adequately describes mixed cultural experiences, or that reflects the complexity of these experiences. The tapes in Hybridity Identities are a small sampling of the films and videos that unravel aspects of hybridity that are painful, destructive, and unnecessary so that we may abandon them, and articulate new visual languages for selfdetermination, new dialects of diversity. • ---© 1994 Mona Jimenez has been involved since the mid-1970s with media in many capacities, including artist, educator, curator, and media arts administrator. She works as Executive Director of Media Alliance, a statewide media arts organization based in New York City. As an artist Jimenez works with video, computers, and other tools to create both time-based works and prints. Prints from the series Between the Lines: Mothers, Sons and War recently have been exhibited in New York City; Buffalo, New York; and Portland, Maine. She is in the process of making a documentary about a cultural collaboration between the Dairy Farmer's Union and a puppeteering troupe in the 1930s. On Cannibalism and Honored by the Moon are distributed by Women Make Movies, 462 Broadway, New York, New York, 10013, (212) 925-0606. Work In Progress is distributed by Third World Newsreel, 335 W. 58th Street, 5th Floor, New York, New York. 10018, (212) 947-9277. For information on the other tapes, please contact the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, New York.

HYBRID fDENTfTfES

Biographies of video artists

is a video artist living in New York State. She also produces tapes for modern dance companies. 1I16thof I 00% has been exhibited in New York City venues including White Columns Gallery and Film Video Arts. Ina's current project is a film set in 1940s Georgia. It celebrates black movies of that period and their influence on the identities of three young women.

4 fr.U,.ed;.. is a performance and video artist based in Southern California. Coming from a Cantonese, English, Irish, and Welsh background, he explores the contemporary Asian American experience through humorous and angry autobiographical stories. Fulbeck confronts media imagery of Asian men, interracial dating patterns, and icons of race and sex in the U.S.-constantly questioning where hapas "fit in" in a country which ignores multiracial icy. Fulbeck's most recent solo performance, banana split & other mix ups, premiered at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego and was performed nationwide at the 1993 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial in New York. Kip Fulbeck is an Assistant Professor of Art Studio and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

~~is a writer and videomaker who has produced award-winning Native American focused documentary and experimental pieces. Her work has been shown in broadcast, festival, and community venues including at the Walker Arts Center, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the American Indian Community House. She directs media projects at the National Indian AIDS Media Consortium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

UJ~ UJ'1uj is an IndonesianAmerican writer and videomaker of Bacak/ Palembang descent. Her book The Third Eye: Race, Cinema and EthographicSpectaclewill be published by Duke University Press. She is currently a President's Fellow at the University of California at Los Angeles African Studies Center.

l<.Mva-Ucv-vMJis an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. He has received grants from the: American Film Institute, National Endowment for the Arts, Arts lntemational/N .E.A., Illinois Arts Council, Colorado Council for the Arts, and Center for New Television, Chicago. His works have been exhibited at Committed Visionsat the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Berlin Video Festival, Germany; Montbeliard Video Festival, France; 3 7th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, New York;and have been broadcasted on "Independent Focus" at WNET, New York.

isabella

My mother is Mexican and my father is Italian and I have lived and travelledin both countriesas well as in the United Sta.tes.Early and continuous exposureto diversecultures has had a dominant impact on my intellectual and artisticdevelopment.

Fundamentalto my work is the explorationof personaland cultural mythology.This involvesscrutinizingmy role as a woman, and as an observerin the cultures that have so powerfully contributedto my artisticvision. By closely examiningthe specificsand detailsof my experience,my work revealspatterns and ideas that are central to otherscross-culturallyand within each culture.

My photographyis "straight,"that is, the negativesand the prints are manipulatedonly insofaras they are exposed to light, developed,and fixed. However, the imagesare placedin frames which reflect my interestin the relationship betweenphotographyand other media. This context allowsme to explorea variety of formal, feminine, cultural, religious,and psychologicalelements.

My existenceis improbable,filled with serendipity,and inextricablyentwined with my work.

Solo Show, October 15 - December 20, 1994 / The Center for Photography at Woodstock Isabella la Rocca, Mama no puede ser Virgen, the original is a unique chromogenic print (sold as unique dye transfer) 26x23" (hand painted frame)

THE CENTER F

GEORGEHOLZ

Originallyfrom Oak Ridge, Tennrnee, GeorgeHolz picked up his first camera-an Instamatic-when he t 'aS eleven years old. Holz graduatedjrom the Art Center Collegeof Designi• Pasadena,California, and subsequently begana commercialcareerin Milan, Italy. His photographshave appearedin the magazinesVogue Italia, Lei, Elle, Mademoiselle, Harper's Bazaar,and GQ. In 1985, Holz opened his studio in New York City. He's created advertisingcampaignsfor Elizabeth Arden, the InternationalGold Corporation, and DeBeer's. He continues to shootfor fashion magazinesand photographscelebritiesin the music and art world. GeorgeHolz's personalwork is an on-goingseriesoff emale nudes, some of which were publishedin Collectors Photography in 1987. Holz residesin Manhattan and Saugerties,New York.

The retail price of this image is $8001200. <J->ahonLwef II mEmbeuhip donation $500

SHEVAFRUITMAN

Sheva Fruitman'swork has been seen in the publications:The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Esquire, A ·enue, Worlds of Interiors, Glamour, Self, Mademoiselle, House and Garden, and Traveler. She studiedat Bard Collegeand with Lisette Model. Her work is carriedby Hamilton's Galler)' in London and was on displaytherein 1994. The artist, who lives in both New York City and Barrytown, New York, is known for her beautifulimages of fruit and flowers. The platinum processshe uses providesa sensuous and permanent print. Sheva'sstill-life work makes the ordinaryextraordinary.

The retail price of this print is $600, 800. <J->ahon1'wef II membeuhi{2 donatwn $500

OTOGRAPHYAT

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Patron Membership Print Program: Each year the Center offers individuals the special opportunity to become Collection.Selectionsfromthe Collectionsisan annual Patron-Members. Patrons may select origin.ii prints donated by nationally recognized photographers. This category of travelingexhibition,and donationsare listedin the annual Membership offers a unique opportu111t,to collect contemporary art at a reasonable fee. Join! Show support for PHOTOGRAPHYQuarterly. the Center for Photography, become a collector-or add to your collection-and receive other Membership benefits. • FreeWoodstockPhotographyWorkshopCatalogue.

Salina, gelatin silver print, signed in pencil on back of print, 171/1xl43/s''

Anemone, platinum print, signed in pencil on fronr of print,

November 11, 12, 13

SAME DIFFERENCE a film program

curated by Cheryl Dunye sponsored by the

Center ond held at Bord College / Opening night portraits / The Thinnest Line, Doresho Kyi; Killerof Sheep, Charles Burnett / artspeak/artists of color explore issues of cultural identity by experimenting with

the medium: HaircutsHurt,Randy Redroad, Sally's Beauty Spot, Helen Lee, Picking O Tribes, Saundra Sharp, The Couple in a

Cage: A Guantinaui Odyssey, Coco Fusco

& Paula Heredia, Fade to Black,TonyCokes & Don Trammel, talking revolution / individuals and communities in action /Work in Progress, LuisValdovino, Block Women, Sexual Politicsand the Revolution,Cyrille Phipps & Not Channel Zero, {In} Visible Women, Morino Alverez & Ellen Spiro, Animal Appetites, Michael Cho / burning hearts/lesbian and gay artists of color express the intricate interrelations between race, gender, and sexuality/ TheAttendant,

Isaac Julien, Carmelita Tropicana: Your ,.,., Kunst is Your Waffen, Ela Troyano, History :z: of Violence,Donny Acosto, She Don'tFade, Cheryl Dunye, ToeStoree,Ming-YuenS. Mo.

October 15 - December 20, 1994 FIRE WITHOUT GOLD SOLO: !SABELLALA ROCCA

Center renovations will toke place from January 1 through Morch 1.

Morch 18 -Moy 7, 1995 INFORMATION HIGHWAY/ ALL ABOUT THE HUMAN RACE

NOTICE Of NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICYASTOSTUDENTS

TheCenterforPhotographyschooladmitsstudentsofanyrace,color,nationalandethnicorigintoalltherights,privileges,programs,andactivities generallyaccordedor madeavailabletostudentsattheschool.Itdoesnot discriminateonthebasisof sex,race,handicap,color,natio,alrethnic originin administrationor its educationalpolicies,admissionpolicies,scholarshipprogramsorotherschooladministeredp,grams.

THE CENTER IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY, NOON TO 5 PM 7