18th Street Arts Center kicks off a yearlong party celebrating 30 years as Southern California’s leading artist residency program. The celebrating event is hosted by 18th Street, La Pocha Nostra and Highways Performance Space, and partially supported by Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles. Besides live performances, music, artist’s studios, LA’s gourmet food trucks and craft beer, the Nov. 10th evening spectacular features new live art works by 18th Street artists. Taiwanese visiting artist Poyen Wang’s video installation “Saudade” will also be exhibited at the 18th Street’s Atrium Gallery from Nov. 11 to Dec. 29, 2018.
In Portuguese, “Saudade” is a word that describes a nostalgic longing for the past or a sentimental feeling towards the passing of time. Using projected digital simulations, Poyen Wang overlapped video clips of seascapes that he recorded on journeys with 3D rendered models of rooms where he has stayed in varying lengths in his life. Wang sees a room as an extension of its inhabitant; every room carries a memory of time spent with oneself or another. Within the scenery that seems either far away or nearby, each of the rooms acts as a harbor -- a place for arrival and departure; their shared horizon a reflection of a modern nomadic search for the sense of belonging.
Celebrating its 30th Anniversary, 18th Street Arts Center is one of the top 20 artist residency programs in the United States. Conceived as a radical think tank in the shape of an artist community, 18th Street supports artists from around the globe to imagine, research, and develop significant, meaningful new artworks and share them with the public. It strives to provide artists the space and time to take risks, to foster the ideal environment for the public and artists and to directly engage, and to create experiences and partnerships that stimulate positive social change. Over 500 artists from 60 countries and thousands of American artists have enjoyed the 18th Street experience.
The Ministry of Culture in Taiwan has established long-term partnership with 18th Street, and has been sending two Taiwanese artists each year for residency program. Poyen Wang is one of the visiting artists for 2018. Besides “Saudade” at 18th Street, Wang’s works are also shown at Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles’s current exhibition “Atlas Portal”, which features video narratives, objects and installation about identity roles within cultural circulations and informational exchanges.
“Atlas Portal” at Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles
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