Future of Urban Tribalism
Luchia Meihua Lee
To open consideration of Urban
Tribes, return to the question Kant thought was central “What is the human
being?” [[1]]
This universal question has never lost its relevancy. Part of the answer is
that being human means embracing cultural diversity, yet at the same time
humanity requires valuing people as individuals. For those in caravans
approaching the US border, being human is holding on to aspiration in spite of
accidents of birth. Yet another response to this question is a reverence for natural
and social systems, as elaborated by artistic discourse.
It is the fashion to predict that our
future, and increasingly our present, belongs to high technologies such as AI,
VR, and AR. Ethnicity and other humanistic concerns seemingly will be dissolved
in a utopian future. Stephen Fry [[2]]
retorts that we live in a flood plain and a great storm is coming; most
urgently, if counter-intuitively, in order to prepare for a future bristling
with technology, it is imperative to redouble our efforts to understand who
humans really are, what machines can and cannot do, and which of our priorities
they can assist. Art and humanity are more important than ever; we need to
understand our soul, spirit, sense of beauty, love, inspiration, loyalty, and
empathy. The widespread use of machines will afford us much more time, so it is
vital to know how and why we can fulfill our true destiny.
The subject of Urban Tribes
is a portion of the urgent topic of immigration in this era of globalization. A
concern faced on many continents, it portends potential political, economic,
and cultural crises. From this wider
subject, we focus in on cultural issues in the new community that has been
created typically in the big city where inevitable impacts are compounded, and
the profound and ever-present opposition between remaining faithful to
tradition and adapting to the enveloping milieu is most acutely felt. Nowadays, “Tribe” applies to groups defined
by ethnicity, national origin, language, art work subjects, etc.
And thus, I have made a binary division in Urban Tribes - humans as first discourse, and the land
as a second. First, persons from all backgrounds, cultures, races, genders, and
educational levels are valuable and have important rights, and this is
addressed in Urban Caravan; while Urban Reverence takes as subject land
and the environment with their universal resonance and implications both
biologically, spiritually, and culturally
Urban
Caravan
Paul Ricoeur indicated that Kantian
philosophy prioritizes the questions “What can I know?” “What must I do?” and “What
am I allowed to hope?” and that they logically culminate in “What is a human?”
[[3]]
which is the ultimate question of philosophy.
Looking
more carefully at the possibility of hope and action, Urban Tribes focuses on underlining the diversity of life and
various perspectives characteristic of all generations of immigrants on any
continent and their universal attraction toward good hope. For example, in her
artist book Lo Yichun illustrates the age of discovery, then migrants
taking shelter from the elements behind the rocks of an Italian shoreline after
being refused entry to France, the war in Syria, and from the international
Rescue committee the question “WHAT’S IN MY BAG?” asking what refugees bring
when they run for
their lives. Finally, Lo imagines the first migrant wave reaching Hungary after
crossing the Balkans. Hungarian American artist Steven Balogh, in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, reacts to communism and his bloody military service. His Outsider I
(Fig. 1) shows a seated figure’s legs wired for electrical torture.
The performance piece Kamikaze II
depicts more electrical mistreatment. Information authentication I, II, and III,
made in 1980, present old newspapers covered with hand
writing, graffiti, red ink, and some unreadable repeated images. Contrast to these
his series of New York street views and a photo taken by Fini Balogh that
reveals the artist’s confidence and healthy power gestures.
Untoward attention to sovereignty, power politics, and boundaries
has a long sordid history. Moving towards the US-Mexico border in 2018, six
migrant caravans entered Mexico, with a total of 75,000 people. According to a
statement from the Vatican, “In recent months, thousands of migrants have
arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometers on foot and with
makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women,
often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better
future in the United States. However, the US border remains closed to them.” [[4]]
(Fig. 2)
Figure
2. Vatican News. "Pope sends aid to migrants stranded at the US
border." Vatican News, April 27. Accessed April 28, 2019.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-central-american-migrants-aid-peters-pence.html.
Figure 2. Vatican News. "Pope sends aid to migrants stranded at the US border." Vatican News, April 27. Accessed April 28, 2019. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-central-american-migrants-aid-peters-pence.html.
In the article Irish lawyer reveals the heartbreak he saw
on the US /Mexico border, [[5]]
New York-based immigration attorney James O’Malley is described helping dozens
of women and children make their cases for asylum. (Fig. 3) He said “… asylum under
U.S. law requires a person to establish that he or she has a valid, credible
fear of being harmed, persecuted or killed in their country because of their
race, religion, politics, ethnicity or membership in a particular social group.”
[[6]]
Andrea Coronil’s works are the
obverse of this bureaucracy – the FBI files on her father, obtained through a
Freedom of Information request and made into art, bear titles such as Dad is An Alien, Tear Gas, Agreements, Agents At Grandma's Door. The documentary style is emphasized by the
heavy redactions made by the FBI.
Fig.3. O'Malley, James. "Irish lawyer reveals the heartbreak
he saw on the US /Mexico border." Irish Central, Feb 13. Accessed April 28, 2019
People naturally use and collect
objects in some way familiar to them, even collecting images that constitute a
group memory. They reproduce in the art they collect their nostalgia, and
consciously or not support their own community group, reflecting the pulse of
thinking in society. Societal progress brings new thought concatenations which
can be brought to bear on understanding cultural migration and tradition. Chemin
Hsiao, in his drawing Journey to the
West, has developed a new series from the mythical protagonists in the
early and archetypical Chinese novel of the same name, to those of Alice in
Wonderland. In counterpoint, he draws commuters, tourists, and homeless people
- the lonely or abandoned – recording the cruel face of capitalism. Similarly, Yutien
Chang comments on social status, and roads not taken, in sculptures with
sarcastic semi-anthropomorphic forms, such as a man with a rooster’s head
walking a dog-headed man.
We might find a
self-sufficient group in any ethnicity developing its own cultural identity,
and diverging significantly from its original character. Yet the members of
Urban Tribes never completely take on the living style of the larger population
in which they reside, and it is the differences that are most interesting.
Here, we use a fresh perspective to view small and possibly even isolated
pockets of disjointedness, and then interpret them in an international context.
Lulu Meng, emphasizes duality as a response to her situation as an
immigrant immersed in American society. Catherine Lan uses fur-like
material, sound, and lighting to create an enticing comfort zone that slyly
references the internet battles from which it ostensibly provides refuge.
According to UN
Leaflet No. 10: Indigenous Peoples and
the Environment [[7]] “It is widely
accepted that biological diversity cannot be conserved without cultural
diversity, that the long-term security of food and medicines depends on
maintaining this intricate relationship. There is also a growing realization
that cultural diversity is as important for the evolution of civilization as
biodiversity is for biological evolution.” The contradictory interaction
between local and foreign cultures is satirized by Chen Ching Yao. His I ❤ New York series shows figures in native costumes in different ethnic
restaurants. Further links between food
and culture are traced in Cheng JenPei’s series Recipe evolution movement about cuisine among immigrants from
Southeast Asia to Taiwan, melding flavors from both the immigrants’ new
environs and from their hometowns, and discussing food choices. Miya Ando’s
Japanese-sword-making heritage finds expression in the metallurgical aspect of
her artistic practice, which she employs to represent kimonos and other
traditional Japanese objects.
Manhatitlan Codex, the animation
of Mexican American artist Felipe Gallindo, is his humorous exploration
of the challenges of the universal immigrant experience. Another superficially simple cartoon with
strong cultural content is Kelly Tsai’s Find Your Place in the World.
Recalling the experiences of Americorps alumni and harking back to the
WPA, it examines the role of the individual in society. Using similar methods, Peishih
Tu’s digital piece The Adventures in
Mount Yu is a colorful fantasia of painting and collage and dramatization
of social movements in Taiwan. Images refer to a realistic yet fictional
colonial village in Taiwan that participates in modern history.
Stephen Fry
remarked that “Technology is not a noun, but a verb.” [[8]]
He explores the impact of emergent technologies, looking back at history to
understand the present and the future. We have adapted to revolutionary changes
in all aspects of life over the past millennia, and this provides a basis for
conjecture about the future of human existence in the machine or industrial
internet age, and how best to navigate these murky technological and societal
waters.
In this vein, Yu-Chuan
Tseng’s digital artwork 365 faces of
Jane is composed of photos taken from the internet of people associated
with the word Jane. This piece recalls the artist’s ambivalent connection with
her English name “Jane” and with the internet itself which projects personas
instead of identities. It thus
foreshadows the skepticism of Peychwen Lin, whose creation Eve Clone
employs Biblical references in her challenge to current modes of use of digital
technology. [[9]]
Visual art has developed from the religious or historical or
mythological to emotional and then to portrait painting, as economic drivers
evolved. Noble patronage did not necessarily allow free artistic expression,
and it was only in the 17th and 18 centuries that perceptions on art
moved to place significance on the relation between art and its audience, and
the sophisticated influence of the market made art into a commodity. This
inexorable development has led to faces in Urban
Caravan which are associated with a common name, such as “Jane” or
“Thomas,” or which seem to cross ethnic and color lines, or represent
archetypes instead of identifiable individuals. Other faces stand in for part
of the artists’ experiences, either for personal or historic reasons, whether
specifically New York, American Indian, European, or Asian individuals
experiencing exile or torture, or simply finding a place in the world. The
caravan is not a symbol of a particular person, but stands for all.
In An Urban/Modern Version
of Tribe: The Kalenderi/Hiyyi Association, Sıtkı Karadeniz [[10]]
discusses modern ideas about tribes and documents the persistence of tribes in
today’s Turkey, and points to how they have adapted to city life and grown
stronger and more cohesive, and better connected as a result of internet usage.
A similar situation can be found in the map-like images of MingJer Kuo.
Using a bird’s-eye view, he transforms suburban housing patterns into almost
biological network of curved lines, where individual figures fade away because
on this scale they are insignificant.
Urban
Reverence
“in Central America, the Amazon Basin, Asia, North America,
Australia, Asia and North Africa, the physical and cultural survival of
indigenous peoples is dependent upon the protection of their land and its
resources. Over centuries, the relationship between indigenous peoples and
their environment has been eroded because of dispossession or forced removal
from traditional lands and sacred sites. Land rights, land use and resource
management remain critical issues for indigenous peoples around the world.” [[11]]
Urban
Reverence, the second section of Urban
Tribes, addresses not merely a specific belief or ritual, but also extends
to the relation between humans and nature or the environment. Friedrich
Schiller declared that art ensures humanity’s progress to moral and political
freedom and it is only through beauty that tree freedom can be realized since
beauty alone provides a sensuous image of human freedom and wholeness. Further,
he proclaimed the ‘need of the age’ was the development of man’s ‘capability
for feeling’ the distance from the rational. Notwithstanding writer Karl Philip
Moritz’s claim that the beauty of art should be “a microcosm of the rationally
ordered whole of nature,” [[12]]
Schiller’s view is closer to modern opinions, where morality is a consequence
of concern for the living environment.
Eleng Luluan of the
Lukai tribe in Taiwan has an artistic practice occupying the relationship
between the land and life. She excels at turning diverse materials to her
artistic purpose in assorted media. Her work is always full of tension, staying
close to nature, and holding dialogues with the environment. In 2014, she
returned to her hometown to help reconstruct the village after the Eight-Eight
Flood. [[13]]
Her work The Last Sigh Before Gone (6
November 2016) is a soft installation expressing her sorrowful reaction to the
Eight-Eight Flood, and her
strengthened emotional connection to the tribe. In subsequent years, the tribe,
humanity, and nature have always been her inspirations. In her installations,
she values harmony with the environment and reflects on mental transitions. Her
performative installations involve soft sculpture, tribal environments, and indigenous
minimalist installation. Three
monochromatic photographs, Hunting, Sharing, and Mother, elegant and quietly violent, expose the bond between the
mother and the land. The fibers of Mother’s Garden resemble a woman’s
plaited hair, while a blanched boar’s skull and vertebrae allude to tribal
hunting lands.
Perhaps the most jarring change in the transition from rural
homeland to urban milieu for aborigines is the loss of land, forest, and sea, as
well as ritual and myth, or more accurately the wrenching necessity to adapt
these needs to the encountered environment.
Myth is a connection to the divine, and artists are best equipped to
mediate a new connection that is relevant to city life and shakes off the dust
of mundanity.
Cultural diversity is imperiled and in one century the world has
lost about 600 languages.
“Nearly 2,500 languages are in danger of immediate extinction; an
even higher number are losing the ‘ecological contexts’ that keep them ‘living’
languages. At the current rates, 90 per cent of languages will be lost in the
21st century; most of them are spoken by indigenous and traditional peoples.” [[14]]
In The World in Faces
the itinerant Alexander Khimushin responds to the disappearance of
language and ritual among indigenous peoples by living among them and making expressive
photographic portraits of them in traditional dress.
Walis LaBai, who belongs to
Taiwan’s Saisha tribe, dramatizes the marginality of tribal existence by the
use of holograms where protagonists appear and disappear depending on the angle
from which the work is viewed. He mourns the loss of ritual, in particular the
face tattoos of his maternal grandmother, and personifies his ancestors as
natural spirits. Jason Lujan’s Pawnee
Star Map is given a contemporary treatment by a constellation of four
versions of the original, each more faded and difficult to decipher than its
predecessor. Perhaps this is a comment on the fading of the Pawnee themselves. Diana
Heise is a multi-talented visual artist who investigates social
colonization and ecocide in films, immersive installations, photographs,
performances.
According to the United
Nations,
“It is widely
accepted that biological diversity cannot be conserved without cultural
diversity, that the long-term security of food and medicines depends on
maintaining this intricate relationship. There is also a growing realization
that cultural diversity is as important for the evolution of civilization as
biodiversity is for biological evolution. The link between culture and
environment is clear among indigenous peoples. All indigenous peoples share a
spiritual, cultural, social and economic relationship with their traditional
lands. Traditional laws, customs and practices reflect both an attachment to
land and a responsibility for preserving traditional lands for use by future
generations.” [[15]]
The 8th Conference of Phenomenology of Urban Landscape - entitled Art, Nature and City – was held in
August 2016 in Tehran. At this conference, Dr. Nathalie Blanc
professor of the University of Paris Diderot-Paris 7, remarked “Thus enhancing
the sensitivity of citizens towards environment and landscape conservation is
the exact role that aesthetics plays in the road to achieve sustainability.” [[16]]
j. maya luz uses inherited
family objects to form mandalas, whose deep rich colors show the power of
ritual. While mandalas are frequently associated with Tibetan Buddhism, the
Mayan calendar or tzolk'in wheel deeply and mysteriously resembles mandalas
from Asia. Sarah Walko collects objects from nature, as well as tools
either common or scientific, and other items that catch her eye. Her art
consists of recomposing materials not normally found together to form elegant
and sometimes celestial or ceremonial installations.
Taiwanese artist Lee Wei also picks up natural objects and
other items to make art. She has constructed a whole series from fishing nets. Hiroshi
Jashiki uses traditional Okinawan textile methods onto which he grafts a
Japanese aesthetic sensibility, which leads to outstanding silk screens of
natural scenes. Sarah Haviland’s installations and sculptures
incorporate mythical medieval icons, mesh in animal form, and our connection
with birds.
Abstraction
and geometry are two alternate approaches to Urban Reverence. Geometrical works give a powerful impetus to the
view that mathematics is independent of experience, and thus cuts at the
classic ideal of artistic imitation. Yeh Fang, who has lived in Taiwan
and Canada, started with peonies, a recurring traditional Asian emblem of
wealth and distinction, then moved to astronomical geometry – thus connecting
with the modern environmental movement which originated in pictures of Earth
from space. Valuing philosophy above emotion in art, the German Reinhard
Blank explores harmonies and oppositions, contrasting materials, and
formalism in composition as foundation for a rational consideration of the
relationship between man and the universe. His landscape sculpture typically combines
metal and water, and frames the reflection of natural processes. His four cabinet
sculptures invite viewers to walk within them and admire the minimalist art
with which they are adorned. (Fig. 4)
By contrast, Columbian artist Turizzo employs traditional
methods to echo our connection with the earth in his painting Mother Earth where a finger points
skyward. In Eco Illogico, fish fly in
the air, and birds swim in the ocean, while in another painting a figure of
indeterminate sex stretching arms and legs in DaVinci’s circle, is superimposed
on a welter of icons referencing American Indians, people of all colors, the
American and Puerto Rican flags, the city scape of New York, and even Martin
Luther King. In Urban Caravan, Peychwen Lin’s Eve Clone also uses da Vinci’s
classic structure, but in a representation of a false idol whose existence
warns of the evils of letting technology dominate humankind, in a Biblical
counterpoint to Stephen Fry’s admonitions above.
Urban
Caravan and Urban Reverence
correspond to emphases on human nature, in one case, and to the land and
environment, in the other. No matter the medium, the work’s account of the
discourse of relationship is rather hard to refine into a straight line, as in
the elegant work of several artists in this exhibition. Yet they all respond in
their various ways to Kant’s fundamental question about the modes of human
existence.
Notes:
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