Join us for the closing night program of Dear America, a grassroots mobile public art project led by Bay Area artist Christy Chan responding to the growing epidemic of violence against Asian Americans.
Starting in May, Dear America projected art works by Asian American artists on to high rise buildings throughout the Bay Area—mostly without permission. The 4 to 15 story tall projections beam images and messages of resilience in English and eight different Asian languages, including, among others, Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Thai. With few exceptions, the projections are unsanctioned and intentionally installed without gaining permission from municipalities and local corporations. The art works range from Cathy Lu’s We Are One Family and Mel Chin and For Freedom’s Better to Christy Chan’s White Supremacy is the Original Cancel Culture (see full list of artists below).
Lead artist Christy Chan says of the project: “In a time when the right to belong of Asian Americans is being questioned, taking up space matters. Asian Americans have been in the U.S. since the 1800’s. In sharp contrast to the false notion that Asian Americans are a people whose belonging in America must be granted by non-Asian Americans, this project is about Asian Americans unapologetically taking up space, celebrating each other’s presence, and not asking permission to do so.”
The culminating program of Dear America on August 12 will involve projecting the project's Chinese-language art works, large scale, on Montalvo Art Center’s Historic Villa, the former home of Californian politician James Duval Phelan who campaigned with the racist slogan, “Keep California White,” and was active in the movement to restrict Japanese and Chinese immigration to the United States, advocating for the Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1924 Immigration Act, and recommending the relocation of Japanese immigrants.
Dear America features artworks by the following artists:
- Cathy Lu
- Christine Wong Yap
- Christy Chan
- Jenifer K Wofford
- Mel Chin x For Freedoms
- Related Tactics
Dear America is an artists-run project supported by community donations and in part by community partners Mills College Art Museum and Stand With Asian Americans. To learn more about the project, visit dearamericaprojections.com.
Christy Chan, Christine Wong Yap, Jenifer K Wofford, Mel Chin, and Weston Teruya & Michele Carlson from Related Tactics are all Lucas Artists Program Fellows or Guest Artists.