A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.
Powerleegirl Hosts Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-Lee talk with creators behind Neon Was Never Brighter, an arts extravaganza that will take over San Francisco Chinatown on April 30.
Miko speaks with curator Candace Huey who has lined up an exciting and vibrant group of artists in many different disciplines. Jalena speaks with Summer Mei Ling Lee who is creating Chinatown Immemorial. Miko speaks with scent artist Yosh Han and her collaborator, beauty expert Billy Ola Hutchinson.
APEX Express is a proud network member of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE).
CALENDAR
4/23 7:30pm Presidio Theatre – World premiere of Mark Izu’s Songs for J-Town
4/30 3-10pm San Francisco Chinatown – Neon Was Never Brighter
Show Transcripts – Neon Was Never Brighter
[00:00:00] Opening: Asian Pacific expression. Unity and cultural coverage, music and calendar revisions influences Asian Pacific Islander. It’s time to get on board. The Apex Express. Good evening. You’re tuned in to Apex Express.
[00:00:18] Jalena Keane-Lee: We’re bringing you an Asian American Pacific Islander view from the Bay and around the world. We are your hosts, Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-lee the powerleegirls, a mother daughter team,
[00:00:28] Miko Lee: welcome. Candace Huey, curator of neon was never brighter. Welcome to apex express.
[00:00:34] Candace Huey: Thank you Miko a pleasure to be here.
[00:00:36] Miko Lee: I’m so excited to read about neon was never brighter. A glimpse into the future, which is happening April 28th, from 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
[00:00:45] Candace Huey: We’re really excited to announce that neon was never brighter is going to be the official event that kicks off AP heritage month for the month of may.
[00:00:53] Miko Lee: Can you tell us for us to where this title comes from?
[00:00:56] Candace Huey: Sure happy to. So as you might recall, neon and San Francisco has a long standing history in particular, in Chinatown, back in the early 1920s and thirties, Chinatown was actually the area that had. The largest, most condensed neon lights and tourists from afar would come to Chinatown to use it as a backdrop for their images. But, these neon signs also had a practical use was which was that they were meant to capture the attention of the working class neighborhood to come and buy. At their mom and pop shops. So today the neon signs are not as not as bright, a lot of them. The paint is a little bit chipping up, but the way in which I thought about using this title was because I was thinking about how these signs are a medical.
For the neighborhood, as well as the people that they’re monumental, that they’re enduring that during this time of really challenging climate with ongoing anti-Asian violence, anti-Asian sentiment along with coupled with the pandemic that. The neighborhood, the people and its intersection communities are vibrant, were resilient and wherever a glow. In fact, I’m saying it was never brighter. Cause we this festival is meant to be an initiative for optimism and hope. And that it’s meant to say the people its residents, communities are, if not ever brighter than we’ve ever been, because we are collectively together. We are resilient. We are tenacious.
[00:02:37] Miko Lee: Wonderful. And how has this event a glimpse into the future?
[00:02:42] Candace Huey: So this is inaugural event of a amazing new collaborative called Chinatown media and arts collective. That is harnessing the power of art and culture to contribute to the social and economic recovery of Chinatown, as well as shaping a more inclusive and just America. So expands beyond Chinatown into larger communities in San Francisco and even beyond. So this collaborative is made up of six nonprofit, and they’re doing some amazing work for the community and these organizations are angel island immigration station foundation, Chinese for affirmative action, the center for Asian American media, Chinese cultural center of San Francisco, Chinatown community development center and Chinese historical society of America. So these six nonprofit API orgs are building together this collaborative that is, using art as a vehicle to usher in. Expansive vernacular of what Chinatown is, and it’s really showing you Chinatown in the future. It’s really ushering in this fluid definition of what Chinatown is expensive.
CMAC is this wonderful nonprofit organization that celebrates the intersections of community art and media, and it’s using art as a vehicle to revitalize San Francisco and Chinatown. So you’re really gonna see interdisciplinary, creative, imaginative, curious way. Of expanding what Chinatown means in its more tiled, layered histories and, multi, numerous diverse narrative.
[00:04:19] Miko Lee: I hear you saying that this is an event that’s going to pull from our history, that Chinatown history, but bright neon lights. And then think about the future of how these organizations can work together to bring people into Chinatown, to look at the different voices and different people and different artistry that makes that Chinatown kind of come alive. Can you tell us about the event itself and what viewers can expect at the event?
[00:04:43] Candace Huey: This festival is basically inspired by the notion of Chinatown personifying. So I grew up in San Fran. Go and born and raised in, going to Chinatown and often. And for me, I really think about how it has a pulse, it breathes and lives and continues to live on and have longevity. And so I framed the festival in terms of these categories we’re trying to down is presented and it calls out to you. So it’s see me, hear me, sends me no me. Remember me and join me. So each of these aren’t activations, which are family friendly, they’re interactive and inclusive.
They’re categorized under these different themes of CME. So an example of CME is an augmented reality experience created by Lauren Lee McCarthy, where we’re going to have. Spread throughout Chinatown, mainly in Portsmouth square, which is the center historic center, Chinatown using augmented reality.
So you use your phone, there’s a QR code in different areas. You pull it up and it’ll have little phrases that pop up around areas where people congregate. And the phrases might be, the seat, if there’s a bench there, it might say the seat is for people that need to be seen, or this fee seat is for people that are missing someone. It was prompted from Lauren McCarthy’s understanding of what was happening during the pandemic, how we were isolated, how we never really know where anyone is really at that moment. And is it okay to ask, is it safe to talk to you? And so having these. Hopefully not only talks about the ways in which technology can both divide and unite us, but how it can actually be a source to prompt us to talk to one another and to create some interpersonal connections. And maybe you might see this phrase that says I want to speak to someone and you might walk over there and say, would you like to have a conversation? So it’s these questions that come up.
[00:06:37] Miko Lee: Candace tell us what makes neon was never brighter, a really unique event.
[00:06:43] Candace Huey: So this is a interdisciplinary festival that is really all over Chinatown, encompassing 68 blocks. It’s a free, fun, colorful. Literally colorful and also metaphorically coverable event of activation. You can join a procession. There’ll be video projections, they’ll have a scent installation where you can smell. There’ll be augmented reality experience. There’ll be a fashion show. There’ll be film screening. They’ll even be, a noodle festival that kicks it off. It’s a family friendly really, fun, all inclusive activation and experience for our audience.
[00:07:22] Miko Lee: Can you share a little bit more about the uniqueness and the quality of the artists and actually what made you as the curator select them to be part of this walking, all the Chinatown neighborhood arts explosion. How did you select the artist?
[00:07:37] Candace Huey: I was thinking about finding voices that. Represented the myriad of diversity of Chinatown. When we think about Chinatown, you might also often only thing about, Chinese communities, but in fact, Chinatown is a hub of so many. Interesting intersections of various cultures and communities ranging historically back to the 1960s during the civil rights movements and even earlier thinking about the founding of San Francisco, we have one of the earliest residents in San Francisco as a city having their tent along grant avenue.
So it’s a mishmash of wondering. Different histories and cultures. And I wanted to bring that to the fore. So in thinking about the artists, they’re ranging from a variety of API and Asian Pacific Islander artists, as well as Asian-American artists from many different disciplines, from dance to visual arts, to literary arts, to performance, all different types of artists. They’re all coming together to give you a beautiful kind of weaving both visually and metaphorically of what Chinatown is. I was thinking about is to present different voices. And have them represented or representing different voices.
[00:08:54] Miko Lee: Tell us about some of the artists that kind of stand out that our audience can expect.
[00:08:59] Candace Huey: The whole event is going to be kicked off in the evening by a wonderful procession that you’re invited to join. Brought together by summer mailing me. She’s going to bring together a group of Asian Pacific Islander cultural practitioners ranging from musicians to ritual keepers, to visual artists.
And they’re going to perform acts of light hope and joy for Chinatown, especially during this time where, they suffered so much during the past several years. So it’s going to kick off with a blessing from the. Dallas Institute monks. And then there’s going to have a song of victory by a renowned Cantonese opera singer, like us sing. And then it’s going to walk around Chinatown, giving blessings to those who are visiting. And if you want to join the procession. And a lot of the wonderful organizations that are supporting the communities in Chinatown, such as self-help for the elderly 41, Ross wound pinion, all the different areas. It’s going to culminate at great star theater with a celebratory performance by the Rice Rockets , which is the all Asian drag queen company and the lion dance me a wonderful local lion dance. Then it’s going to then kick off to a fun fashion show and film screening with Chinatown short your hair by James to Chan and Koreatown and a fashion show with a fashionista. Dorothy Kwok and Victoria. That’s one of them. Another one I want to highlight is a really playful, fun family friendly installation by BU Lang. That’s going to be located at 800 grant, and that is a interactive shrine that’s referencing going yum with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes. So this info it’s going to be a giant inflatable hand that is in the shape of a latex glove.
And we often think about latex gloves as referencing. Sterility or, fear relating to COVID, but she’s, transmogrifying into something bright, positive, and playful. And it’s referring back to the body. Safa compassion going. Yum. Each of the thousand hands and eyes were meant to observe all that happens in the world.
Then if wish upon it, it’s going to help you. The Buddhist compassion will help you. So people are asked to come and take ahead, draw a picture, write a message, and then connect it to the giant inflatable hand. And so in this way, it’s empowering the people right. Coming together. You’re coming together to give well wishes to one another.
And to give you. Metaphoric, helping hand for one another. So that’s one example of a very fun, interactive installation. There’ll be many more, there’s a wonderful scent work by your Sean and Billy Allah Hutchinson, where we’ve asked Yosh to say, come up with a center, what would longevity smell like?
So Yosh came up with this amazing scent and working with Billy ologists and to create a red envelope experience. So during the procession. We’ll have different volunteers, such as the committee, youth center, the youth will come and hand out these red envelopes where rather than getting what you expect to get, which is cash inside the red envelopes, you’re actually going to get the gift of, or the well-wishing long life in your instance.
[00:12:18] Miko Lee: As a scent?
[00:12:20] Candace Huey: Yeah, it’s a scent. So it’s a bit of our artistic twist on the historic red envelope.
[00:12:25] Miko Lee: Love it. How fun? What time should people arrive or is it, you can just come and go. What do you suggest?
[00:12:32] Candace Huey: There will be a combination of both timed events as well as events that are ongoing throughout the whole thing. But the event starts at 3:00 PM. From three to four, you can check out the noodle Fest. You can join walk around, explore, and then starting at four will be the procession, which we’d love for you to partake in and then follow the procession as it takes you around Chinatown and check out the other art activations. And there’ll be a scheduled. Presented so you can follow if you like something more structured. And if you are much more about, exploring and being spontaneous, there’ll be something happening almost on every block on Chinatown. And you can just be curious, walk around and walk at your own pace.
[00:13:13] Miko Lee: Oh, this is great. We will have a link on our show notes that it, you can reach and get more information about neon was never brighter.org. You can go to that website and find out more information. Is there anything that our audience needs to do to prepare for this event?
[00:13:30] Candace Huey: I would say, bring your walking shoes. China town has a lot of Hills The open, have fun and enjoy yourself and just allow the senses, allow your senses to be
[00:13:41] Miko Lee: Thank you. Candice Huey curator of neon was never brighter for joining us on apex express. And we’re going to get a chance tonight to listen to some of the artists about their inspiration and hear more about this upcoming amazing event. Taking over all of Chinatown, April 28th, from 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Thanks so much.
[00:14:00] Candace Huey: Thank you so much, Miko. For your time.
[00:14:03] Jalena Keane-Lee: Thank you so much summer Lee for joining us on apex express. First, could you tell us a little bit about your art and art making practice and what inspires you? First thank you so much, Julia, for having me on this program. I. I think it’s super important to hear from Asian artists.
[00:14:21] Summer Lee: And so I’m really happy that you’ve given me this opportunity and also this event coming up. I don’t I don’t know how to talk about my art and I was just telling you before we started recording that I’m very because I have a mixed identity background. Chinese-American that I’m very wary of having identity pinned to what I do. And yet others see it very clearly for me. And often I find myself in situations doing work that asks me to consider these aspects of identity and history and cultural belonging, and cultural displacement. So anyway, and you told me that you’re a filmmaker and I’m always, when I. Biracial. And in your case, tri-racial people I’m always super curious to hear about your experience.
Because I think we’re all different in some ways, but that maybe there’s something out, that could be illuminated and helped me understand that space more. And
[00:15:15] Jalena Keane-Lee: yeah. I really liked the way that you talk about it. And I think it shows up in your work as well, but like these in-between spaces and I was reading something in some of your work about chance encounters and like being unsettled to create openness for new possibilities and that kind of, exploration of things that are in between, or maybe not seen as much is something that I am also interested in my work of like things that are invisible and making them visible. So I think maybe coming from multiple backgrounds or having multiple heritages plays into that too, of just living your life in those different in-between spaces or kind of understanding that things aren’t really binary just from your own family or your own upbringing.
[00:16:04] Summer Lee: Yeah. And there’s something very particular I think about at least for me, the Chinese American experience, because my grandmother was, I was very close to her and she had this very strong feeling she wanted to pass on to me, which is there’s an obligation to remember every member of this heritage. And yet it was a heritage. I didn’t exactly live because I didn’t grow up in China. I grew up in the bay area. But she, as an immigrant, wanted to remember and wanted to pass it to me. So she weirdly gave me this a morphous culture that she identified with that was pre cultural revolution because of when she immigrated.
And then wanted to give it to me who is very white looking. Didn’t speak Chinese but then felt this enormous sense of obligation and actually really appreciation for the beauty of this sense of cultural understanding and, ancestral gratitude and ritual and things like that. It, and it’s a space that always keeps moving for me. I don’t think I can pin it down or even verify it because it moves. And the more I try to. Oh, I guess yeah. Put it into words or really contain it. It more wants to escape into something else. And which I think is, the aesthetic experience actually at its best. And I love this idea you’re talking about invisibility.
And I think this, I there’s, people have told me that there’s this notion or a theme of absence and presence in. Because also, yes, it’s bringing things from invisible to visibility, which I also think has like political implications, because I think the PR the particular racism that Asian-Americans face is one of invisibility and it plays out in the art world exponentially.
But then of course there’s like this deeper bigger. Human experience that things disappear. We all disappear. We come home to the unanswerable. Our work will disappear eventually. And so that also fascinates me too. And and that there’s this like transmutation of wanting to bring things to visibility, but also to remind us that while we’re all very femoral and normally I don’t like to talk about my work because I think that’s part of my wariness of being contained too much.
And that what I love about art is the freedom and and the freedom to be otherwise. And maybe this is also another particular thing about growing up in between identities. That that what I’m hoping the aesthetic space is to remind us that we have the freedom to be otherwise. But also the freedom to be otherwise also is an understanding that we’re deeply connected to very mundane things like the way we look and identity and cultural histories and politics. And so to me, it’s that space that transmutes from one to the other, that really fascinating. I love that.
[00:18:44] Jalena Keane-Lee: And I’m thinking to what you’re saying about the obligation to remember how does . I guess both the feeling of obligation and memory and legacy show up in your work. I know that your grandmother is present in a few of your district pieces and like her.
[00:18:58] Summer Lee: I it’s, because of something she gave to me, I understood that I had this immense privilege because of the work of the people who came before me. And what part of that was the immigration experience where they sacrifice. At least generation or to to go somewhere where there was more, opportunity quote unquote, and that, and I feel that deeply even just to be an artist, which I think other generations, you had to do something a lot more practical because you had to really think about your daily sustenance and also you faced people faced a lot of discrimination in terms of jobs and where you could live.
In fact, one of my grandmother tried to move out of and this is just the San Mateo, California out of the historically Chinese neighborhood into just a few blocks away into the more white neighborhood. And this is in the seventies, the homeowner’s association organized a blocker from doing so because they were Chinese and Chinese American, both my grandmother and grandfather were citizens at that point.
And yet there was this attempt to really block them from living in, and this is in the baby. So I think I had this understanding that they yeah, the word sacrifice is always something that kind of comes up. And so I, and in my life I have immense privilege to do things that she was unable to do. And I remember this sweet memory of when I was growing up and she would come over for dinner and I would be doing homework and she would just peer around the doorway to watch me doing my homework, because that was her sense of Meaning for her life that I was doing homework, where she was removed from school quite young, and wasn’t able to do that.
And I’m, I think probably there was some early feminist things in her to thinking as a girl, she was removed from school in her family. And as a girl, I was, being encouraged and given the possibility to do education and then to turn it towards art ocean Vong said it so beautifully. It’s I think. Earlier generations where like you lay low, you stay quiet, you don’t stick out because you could face discrimination and face harassment. And for an artist you’re like here I am. Here’s my work. Here’s what I think and believe. And that’s an utter privilege and it’s a fraught one. And even though I, again, I have a white privilege because I appear pretty white and I have all the having brought, been brought up in a white context and. You still feel this oh, this expressing myself is a little risky.
[00:21:23] Jalena Keane-Lee: What you were saying about visibility and art that, it’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently and the braveness of visibility, but also the kind of exposure, both positive and negative. And I guess that can come with that. And I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how that relates to safety as well in this present moment. And yeah, through generations, how that has worked with older people, ancestors having that cultural understanding of, keep your head down and work and just continue on and how this moment of increased. Asian-American visibility, like saying media in art has also come with increased visibility that has brought a lot of like physical and bodily danger to our communities.
[00:22:10] Summer Lee: I’m super happy to like, have a space to you to talking about it because there’s so many paradoxes in racism towards Asians. And I do, I think we’re hitting one of them, which is the visibility and then the punishment for being visible. I think that’s a really and I D I also, as you probably agree with me that in an art world, Asian American artists are like the eye they’re just overlooked often. People throughout the ages have said, oh, there’s a model minority myth. But I do think that’s very little. And that and people are more articulate and understanding of the issues than I am have said that the problem, the Asian American community is such a diverse one. And and that also includes class and access to resources and immigration status. And when you immigrated, which country you came from?
It’s probably, it’s a huge group. And so I think there’s, that plays into it too, but I like there was something really heartbreaking when the Asian-American API attacks were happening in San Francisco that. I I think we, I don’t know. I have people in my committee, we all felt like these were our aunties and uncles that were being attacked. And we also felt like utter lack of agency as what do, how do we respond? And actually, I really like Erica Chong. I don’t know if you know her work, but she’s a very based artist who just came up with an art response, which is to have. Be assigned to an elder who is isolated through an organization that was already providing services to them.
And as artists, we connected with this elder I think it was once a week over a period of time just to provide company. But at the end of that experience, we would create a poster about this elder and then she and Ryan Takata. took these posters and posted them all over. In fact, I think one event was even in Alabama. So she was trying to really put these posters out as saying, here is, here are people in a community where human and but also in that was like a connection between the artists and these elders. And I thought I told her my, this was so healing because at a moment I’ve just felt so helpless and I felt I didn’t. Yeah that just, it wasn’t to just be a victim and feel like, oh, our community’s being victimized, but having no way to take agency back. So anyway, I’m really grateful to that project. Yeah. And and then she had some panel discussions too, where she invited some elders with the artists to talk about what it was like. Yeah, it was a really thoughtful beautiful project.
[00:24:43] Jalena Keane-Lee: I’m curious too, about some of the stuff you were saying, about navigating the art world and connecting it to what you were saying earlier about, these kinds of labels, especially around identity that sometimes, are placed on you.
[00:24:56] Summer Lee: I ended up doing a work about my mentor who had just passed away and it was really about the ephemerality of, him. His life. He was my philosophy mentor. And so to lose, somebody who had really filled my head with thoughts and how I see the world. In fact, one time she said trust that your work can overcome the constraints that other people are putting on it. And that’s a very difficult responsibility, but it is something I will always remember her saying when in a particular experience where I felt like there were a lot of constraints being put on my work and she said, trust the art to overcome the constraints. And it doesn’t always happen. In fact, most of the time it doesn’t, but it is like a Northern star for me.
When I said about doing. Oh, wow. That’s incredible. What kind of personal practices or art making practices do you have to keep alive the space to create without these constraints or identity, I think it’s all internal work, but one, my mentor once gave me a beautiful quotation, which is basically approval is just as stifling as disapproval and I, and he what he was saying. And it’s true. So you have. It’s an internal compass for what you believe, what I believe is doing the work.
And and it’s very, of course, as somebody who puts your work out into the public sphere it’s a tough thing to do, and to be porous enough, to understand how the work is being responded to, but also be Disciplined enough to know that the work is being measured against your own internal metrics. And I usually take the internal metrics and I go outward. I even sometimes think, would the ancestors be happy? Would God be happy? Would you know the, who would the building be happy? That’s housing. I really try to de-center it because I don’t think it’s me, but I always I think about when I think of audience and then of course I have a handful of people who I do trust to say, okay, Is this work, doing what they know that I’m, trying to do.
If I start to think, oh, I know how to measure my own work. Then it moves and I have to move with it because I probably with filmmaking, as every thing is different. Every time, every situation, every time you go out to do something. And so what is quote, unquote successful also changes. So I don’t, and I certainly don’t have this figured out either. I but I think that’s the practice of art is that, and what’s exhilarating about it is that it’s it’s a constant growing curve and learning. And I don’t know, hope. I don’t think I’ve made hopefully the best art I’m capable of making. And so hopefully as my practice grows that I’ll open up more possibilities to make a work that really deserves of the, the sacrifices that people have made to enable me to make our.
[00:27:40] Jalena Keane-Lee: I really relate a lot to that end, just like the humbleness and gratitude. That seems very core to your process and outlook is very inspirational. And I think, as an artist, it’s so hard to define what success means to you. And I really drawn to what you were saying about approval being just as stifling as disapproval and. I wonder if there’s even a link to these called model minority ideas that were raised with when it comes to like Asian American art makers especially going up, growing up in the school system where you get used to getting A’s or having these like quantifiable indicators of how well you’re doing. I find that sometimes it’s natural to. Translate that expectation into art, but that is really stifling and prohibitive to actually making the best work that you want to make.
[00:28:33] Summer Lee: Oh God, a men. And it’s somebody once told me, comparing yourself to other artists is the killer and it’s that I think like it’s the double-edged sword of being artists. There is no standard of what makes even a good career. And you just get these reminders that nobody really knows and Wayfair, you make your way by going by, wayfaring, there is no map. And it’s true as I definitely benefited the front of model minority and I looked a lot more Asian when I was a kid. And I definitely, delighted in being top of my class and all this other stuff.
And I had to shed all of that very quickly in the art world there because it was just painful to hold onto that kind of experience and applied to the art world. And for many reasons yeah, that’s really quite spot on what you’re saying. I love it.
[00:29:19] Jalena Keane-Lee: some of the stuff you’re saying about, things being unverified or not quantifiable, not easy to pin down also seems like a big theme in your work. So I’m curious, how you explore that, especially as it relates to Chinese-American legacy or the history of your family and the country.
[00:29:35] Summer Lee: And Zen traditions and Asian Confucianism endowments. And there is a lot more space for mystery. And by the way, in Christian thought back before enlightenment, there was a lot more space for mystery. Also, that was the foundation for a lot of Christian thinking was then knowable. So anyway I, to me, that’s the exciting part of aesthetics is being placed in that space where something is obviously moving happening. Bringing ourselves out of ourselves and then collecting ourselves back together. Again, that to me is this static moment.
[00:30:12] Jalena Keane-Lee: That’s so beautiful. And I’m really drawn to what you said about having this space for mystery and how that relates to like our sense of self, especially in relation to our work as artists and particularly as Asian American artists. And that’s also why spaces like neon never brighter where it’s all, Asian-American artists. Curatorial teams are so special. And also having it as public art that’s, throughout Chinatown, outside and bringing people to a site of so much joy and cultural pride and food and healing, but also sites that have become so fraught with pain and lost as well in the past few years is such a unique and special opportunity. How are you feeling about the community engaging with your work in public space through this project?
[00:31:04] Summer Lee: When I was given this opportunity, my impulse was just to bring something that I, of course, self projected as beautiful into Chinatown. It’s involving so many, really beautiful organizations that have been involved in Chinatown, cultural and even not culture, social service organizations. And it’s really, this moment is coming together of many different Constituents and stakeholders and people who just feel connected Chinatown one way or the other and using art as the glue. But I, to me personally, I’m using the same, ideas and mechanisms, which is the basically, what do I, what would I gift in terms of ritual and something beautiful as we’re in this case, it’s the procession through China. I think we’re all secretly hoping that this becomes something every year, because I think our community could use events where we galvanize together. And I guess there’s lunar new year parade But I think there’s something different and using contemporary art and and also traditional practitioners and using cultural practice.
And as with all things, like there’ll be a trip, a mix of tradition, and there’s going to be the things that push culture for. I think that’s the aspiration of neon. And then I think there’s just this practical component, which is to bring liveliness back into Chinatown and just and to celebrate it.
[00:32:27] Miko Lee: Welcome you brilliant artists, Yosh Han, and Billy Ola Hutchinson to APEX express tonight. We’re going to talk about neon is never brighter. That’s coming really soon and a takeover of downtown Chinatown. We’re so happy to have you here with us.
[00:32:44] Billy Ola Hutchinson: Thank you for having.
[00:32:46] Yosh Han: Thank you for having us together.
[00:32:48] Miko Lee: You are working on a piece that’s entitled longevity and it’s so interesting. And first, before we talk about the piece itself, I’d like to ask each of you to describe your artistic medium and how that artistic medium reflects your personality.
[00:33:06] Billy Ola Hutchinson: My artistic medium is a multi-disciplinary artist. I’m attracted to all things that are beautiful and all of their many expressions. I enjoy things that are done on paper, like trying, painting collage calligraphy and. To making a beautiful meal and serving it to friends and making sure everything is in order and reflects either the season or the celebration. And this continues throughout not just my art making, but actually as a way of life.
[00:33:37] Miko Lee: Yoshi. What about you talk about your really specific and beautiful art form and how that reflects your personality.
[00:33:45] Yosh Han: Thank you so much. My name is Yosh and my Chinese name actually means fragrant dragon. And that’s what I’ve ended up becoming is a perfumer. And so oftentimes you think, oh, do you become the name or does the name become you? And it really, even though it was accidental, how I got into perfumery, I feel like navigating the rural through olfaction has just really changed my life, but also bringing attention to something that maybe not a lot of people do because most people are visual.
[00:34:22] Miko Lee: Wow. I love that. That’s your Chinese name. I actually did not know that much about your art forum and how beautiful it is. Can you talk a little bit about. What part of your imagination becomes alive as you’re developing a scent?
[00:34:39] Yosh Han: That’s a great question. Partly because most people don’t navigate the world through scent or they, maybe a lot of people just think of scent as the commodity of an actual perfume that you get in a store rather than no, this is the way I navigate the world. I, instead of seeing things in color or sometimes people, if they’re musicians, they hear things first, but for me, it’s always a what smells are in there or how is it interpreted using sense? And so I think when you have this different way of seeing, seeing, or smelling the world, that just changes your perspective because it’s also related to your breath. So it’s, so if you’re without breath, you’re just on alive, right.
You’re just dead. And I think also because. Practicing clairvoyant. There’s the energetic component of what I do. And when you are so in tune with how you live life and how the creative energies flow through, then you understand. Energetics behind plant intelligence and how that can be, used positively. If you go back to olfaction in general, it’s one of the things that maybe people think of as like the pinky finger and most people don’t view olfaction as important, but it’s our most primal scent, meaning we need it for. Survival, right? Because when we were just not living in modern society, you actually had to smell.
If something was dangerous, you have to actually smell fire. You have to use it to find food. And with the advent of 24 hour convenience stores, you don’t need to go hunting for your food. So unless you’re pregnant and taking care of your newborn baby or a fire chief or a police person you don’t really use. Sense of smell for fight or flight so much. So it’s become this luxury or although the irony is because of the pandemic and COVID it’s returned to center stage, so to speak. So our sense of smell has come back to be hyper important.
[00:36:42] Miko Lee: This whole idea about COVID and losing the sense of smell. I think just overall people have a greater appreciation for smell because of that. What’s your thoughts on that?
[00:36:55] Yosh Han: Absolutely. wellness has to do with our sense of smell and also how it’s tied to our taste and memories. It’s just that people just didn’t know how it worked from a, maybe like a scientific perspective, it was just like this thing that we all took for granted, and the moment you take something away it becomes much more precious. And especially. In times of this plague that we’re going through, there’s been a lot of racism.
And part of that racism is how people perceive. Asian cuisine, it’s foreign to some people. And so some people, you see it on social media, they’ve they’re like grossed out by certain foods or something. Whereas there has been a reclaiming of our foods because it’s part of our identity and more than ever, because of COVID and our loss of sense of smell. And because our identity is at stake, more people are saying, Hey, it’s not. Sense of smell as a luxury. It’s a sense of smell and our sense of taste and our communal memory and our family and our identity that’s at stake. And so it’s just been really fascinating to be a perfumer and a flavorist in this time because it’s, I’ve been able to use it, not just as a creative medium, but as a medium for talking about racism. And it’s been really powerful to connect with people on a very deep level.
[00:38:19] Billy Ola Hutchinson: Beauty also extends to, to scent as well. And I use scent a lot in my personal life. And I think maybe we all do on a certain level. I’m sure if you smell something that’s cooking, it will bring back memories of your childhood and maybe your grandmother. So I use. On a daily basis for myself. I make sure to send my hair before I go to sleep or fill the room with incense. So it will induce sweet dreams. When I travel, I will pick a fragrance for that particular trip and I will. Associate my memories with that fragrance. So when I want to revisit it in my dreams, I can apply the fragrance.
And within seconds I am back to Paris or Venice or wherever the trip is that I’m trying to conjure back up within my head. I don’t think we as a collective do that enough, but I think on a primal level, it’s there Proust wrote an entire book about it. So for me it was elusive when Candice asked if I would help be the visual vehicle for this and how we would convey something that is so elusive.
And during the time of. And international pandemic when there’s mass spend dates. And it’s a little challenging to figure out how to convey the essence without feeling like a department store and handing out a set blotters to people who are wearing mass. It’s where I came from in terms of this project and in terms of how I approach sex.
[00:39:59] Miko Lee: So together, your piece that you’re doing for neon has never brighter is entitled longevity. Was how did you two work together? How did you collaborate on this project?
[00:40:10] Yosh Han: putting Billy and I together is just really genius of the curator, Candice. I, she, I think to be a curator, you really have to know not just the outcome, but how the chemistry might work between artists in a collaboration. And she really prepared us very well. I didn’t know Billy personally, but I knew of her work. And came to me. I was like, oh my God, I love this person’s work already.
So that was just genius. And when we went back and forth, it was just, when you get to know someone just Billy’s background, living in Hawaii and just multicultural and then how she, as she just explained, uses incense in her personal practice and the hair, it really allowed me to go at it in a more personal way. So rather than try to be objective to create something that I thought would be, appropriate for the exhibition, I really took from my own. Personal life, like how my house smells, what my parents have taught me. And then it was great to just have this tete-a-tete with Billy going back and forth. Oh my family does this, or what’s your memory of Chinatown. And it really is almost like a dialogue. The scent itself is a dialogue in itself but in a centered capacity of what we talked about. So for me, that was really enjoyable.
[00:41:32] Miko Lee: So this was like an artistic blind date, if you will. Is that right, Billy? Is that how you describe it?
[00:41:38] Billy Ola Hutchinson: Yes. And it was an arranged marriage.
[00:41:42] Miko Lee: It’s great that it worked out
[00:41:45] Billy Ola Hutchinson: the best way possible because chef Candace Huey, she’s the curator and she both knows us and knows how we operate and when she had this project in mind knew what we could bring together. And it was a fantastic Tete a Tete with the ocean and sharing memories and that conjures up from sense and experiences from our past and hopes to celebrate the future of of Chinatown and of our respective cultures
[00:42:16] Miko Lee: since both of you were undergoing this artistic collaboration during the pandemic, were you able to get together and meet and do this in person? How did that work?
[00:42:25] Yosh Han: We did have a lot of conversations online on phone, et cetera. And what I find amazing about collaborations that work is. When you establish that there’s a trust okay, I trust this person’s artistic abilities and, whatever, I don’t want to say judgment, but there’s always fear that as an artist that you’re going to lose control when there’s a collaboration and in some collaborations, there’s lots of ego, lots of narcissism.
And you’d like, one person says, oh no, I want to do it this way. Or I want to do it that way. And I just want to say that working with Billy, the communication was always very clear. And sometimes there’s just lots of logistics to work out and it becomes less creative and some artists are not good producers. And I have to say, Billy is a fantastic combination of both. So it was great to have that trust to say, okay, she clearly is just like above standard, just, fantastic with creativity, but also. You able to just dissect little details. And so when you have that, you just go ping pong back and forth.
And so we didn’t actually meet until the scent was already done, but because she is very familiar with scent, I think that made it a lot easier because a lot of visual artists that I’ve worked with. Or multimedia have no fucking idea what I’m talking about. They have no concept of any kinds of smells and or language. And Billy was fantastic because she was very specific and so we could go back and forth and she could Input, but also just give insights. So not just the actual effect of scent, but then the dispersion, because that’s a second part of anything that I do because there’s the smell component, but then we’ll how you’re going to smell it because most people.
They do think in commerce, they think, oh, you’re going to put in a bottle and spray it in the air. And as an artist, that’s the last thing I’m going to do. So it’s this, how do I get the smell into a format that people can appreciate and not be confused by it, but also the technical component and the production of, okay, we’re going to take this kind of theorial smell or esoteric idea translated into a smell, but then.
Two and three is how are we going to get people to appreciate it and smell it. , so Billy’s visual component and the production really came into play because she understood that I would, did not want to put it in a bottle to spray it. So that was really fantastic to work out those logistics in a very creative format also.
[00:45:06] Billy Ola Hutchinson: So in life, I’m a maximalist and I love to, I’m probably too desiccated cats away from being on hoarders. Because again, I have that beauty addiction. So if it’s shiny and gorgeous, I want to live with it and experience it. But when I do my art or anything, Project. I like to pair it down to the least amount possible that is the most impactful. And when I say impactful, I don’t mean it. It has to hit you in the face impact for me is best when it’s sublime and sometimes you don’t always. Understand it or see it.
So it’s like a secret message that goes out in a bottle and only a select few are tuned in So with this, my initial thought was, it would be great to fill this space with the scent. And if there were no mass mandates, you would enter into this space and just experience it or. We would saturate a outdoor space. So as you walked past, you would catch this cloud of fragrance and hopefully that in itself would help trigger some memories of maybe your former home family meals or having tiger balm rubbed on your achy muscles, whatever it is that hopefully it will conjure up something.
But the pandemic and the mass really hindered us and created these parameters in which we had to figure out how to maneuver within them. And the easy thing would just to be sprayed in it, spraying it on a card, putting it in an envelope and having someone open it later. But then that translated into, hung bow or the red envelopes and how one generation will. The next generation in becoming established, passing on cultural traditions, et cetera. So then it became a red envelope vehicle, but then it needed another component within it. So within that, there’s. Image that evokes that memory. And these are my memories and most of them, most recent memories, but hopefully they are general enough to help trigger other people’s memories of Chinatown or meals had, or family get togethers.
And hopefully that with the fragrance itself helps catapult the participant into Having these fleeting memories and bringing them about, so really it’s just a vehicle to help put the art piece within the person’s head. And then I also liked the hung bile format in a sense that if you’re coming from a non Asian background, that it looks like a seed packets.
So you’re in a sense planting seeds for the future for later harvest. And then it just goes on from there. The format of the photograph itself is riffing off of a Pantone color chart. And the way there’s a white bar on the bottom and then the text and the size To celebrate the various colors within Chinatown, because there are so many different ethnic Chinese within the community itself.
And then Polynesians on top of that as Pacific Islanders and I, myself being part indigenous, Hawaiian and Caucasian Chinatown meant a lot to our family when we relocated to California, because it reminded us. Aspects of back home in Atlanta was pretty foreign to us. Even though we’re American, we still had to assimilate.
[00:48:46] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. I love these, all these different layers of, planting the seed for longevity and the color. Thank you for that. That’s so beautiful. Because you think and see in beauty, Billy, I’m wondering if you could speak about how you feel inside when you yourself recognize something as beautiful.
[00:49:09] Billy Ola Hutchinson: I’m overcome and sometimes it moves me to tears and it could be anything, it could just be a cloud formation. It could be a S an intentional sound. It’s definitely sense. X absolutely flavors. I can’t tell you how many meals I’ve had where, just. Feeling something break apart in your mouth and then the essence of that coming up through your nose and then just experience seeing all the different textures and the scent as you’re ingesting it, it’s overwhelming. And I don’t know I’m overcome and inspired to try and capture something that’s similar.
[00:49:49] Miko Lee: We thank you for that. Yoshi, can you speak a little bit more? Billy was mentioning something about textures. Can you talk about how you smell in textures?
[00:50:01] Yosh Han: Great question. When I smell something, I also smell whether it’s smooth or scratchy or loud, so multi-sensory right. So some people are actually synesthetic. Some people will actually see a color or a number or something like this, whereas I don’t have that sensation. Maybe because I’m also clairvoyant, I feel things when I teach, I love doing this experiment.
We’ll, I’ll have the mountain of peoples all the same people will, sorry, let me start over. When I teach, I will have each student smelled the same thing and it could be cardamom, which smells a little bit like cinema cinnamon. And so one person might say, oh, it smells yummy to me. Okay. That tells me they’re gustatory another person will smell the same ingredient and say, Oh, that’s loud. That tells me they’re auditory or someone might say, oh, that smells really bright or really red. So that’s very visual. And for me that might smell scratchy and that’s tactile. Or another person might say, oh, it smells like my grandma’s cooking. That’s much more emotional. So I like to include all six senses, including the intuitive.
And when you. When you smell in that way, or you learn to understand how a person navigates the world. It allows me to blend with these textures in mind. So this particular scent, which I wanted to create the sense of longevity and also these images and memories that, that Billy and I had together. It’s okay. The, she mentioned the tiger balm and I used Dr. Wong’s medicinal herbal as the top note. So it’s has a herbaceous cancerous top note, but then it goes into the Jasmine because Jasmine in Chinese culture especially is so prominent in the tea. And then I also included temple incense.
So you think these disparate. Fragrances wouldn’t work together, but it’s like when your memories are all jumbled together and it creates this nostalgia. And that to me is like nostalgia is also in a way longevity. I love that Billy included this hump out to make it feel like not just the red envelope, but then the seed packets. I think it’s true too. Maybe the poetry of Chinese culture is it is very layered and it’s very complicated and it’s not so simple, but yet the outcome is often simple without you knowing all the different layers that went in it to make it simple. So it’s when you let yourself go with how things are in nature, which is there’s smells in nature and it’s all layered and it’s mixed up in our emotions and flavor. You realize that, oh, this is just how it is. I can’t dissect it too much. This is just more having awareness of it rather than most people just take it for granted. And so that’s how I smell the different layers and the different textures.
[00:53:05] Miko Lee: Oh, so interesting. I’m really excited to be able to smell this amazing smell. My last question for both of you is, does an audience that’s attending neon has never biter and gets that beautiful hong bow. Is there anything that they need to come prepared to the event for? How should they walk into neon is never brighter and to your artwork, what do you suggest for them, Billy?
[00:53:29] Billy Ola Hutchinson: I would suggest comfortable shoes because it’s going to encompass all of Chinatown. So a will be posted up on grant street. I believe 800 grant and that’s home base, but art installations and performances all throughout, and we’ll be sending our hung bows secretively it’s through volunteers who will pass them out to you. And you might even see us passing them out as well. Be prepared, comfortable shoes. I probably wouldn’t wear heels.
[00:54:01] Yosh Han: I think coming with an open mind and open heart I’ve met some of the other artists and I myself and super excited to experience. What the other artists have created for this exhibition. And I think for me, if you get one of these home bows, I would also just love to hear your own scent memories. So feel free to, if you don’t see me there in person DM me. I just think that scent has a habit of. Unlocking memories and emotions. And so if you should become verklempt, feel free to reach out and send me a note or tell me in person or share your memories with other people. I think that is very bonding is you can also pass it on, it’s not something you need to keep just because you’ve got this home bow rather than throw it in the trash, send it to the next person and let them enjoy it. So I think that’s for me would be the greatest gift is to take this, enjoy it. And then if you want to keep it, but feel free to pass it on.
[00:55:02] Miko Lee: Coming up this Saturday is the world premiere of Mark Izu’s. Songs for J town, one concert only at the Presidio theater. I have a full length interview with mark in an upcoming show, but check out this exciting concert featuring music from the history of San Francisco’s Japan town, beginning with the story of the sun goddess by Brenda Wong Aoki All the way through the japanese american incarceration to present day. Don’t miss it.
Thank you so much for joining us. Please check out our website, kpfa.org backslash program, backslash apex express to find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. Apex express is produced by Miko Lee Jalena Keane-Lee and Paige Chung and special editing by Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the KPFA staff for their support have a great night.