context, context, context....

We are on our third location. We started in a church, in the central valley, filling a fellowship hall. Then we moved to Interplayce, “a dance studio”—for lack of a better description—in the heart of a city. A finally, on the walls of a seminary gallery, that used to be a library, sharing space with archeological artifacts from Jesus’ time (and earlier…). Some of the exhibition has not changed. The words of the poems are the same. Most of the panels are the same. The poster is the same. And much has changed. The work must change (we must change) with the context… whether it wants to or not. I should not have been as surprised as I felt when I discovered that despite my best efforts, I could not exactly duplicate the way the installation hung in its first location in the second location. It just would not work. So, we improvised, adapted and transformed.

And we do again. Our panels are attached to the walls of the Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion, stretched and squished to fit. Yet, as awkward as that may feel, it also feels like coming home. The exhibition hangs across the quad from where we had out first meeting and started this journey almost exactly two years ago. The ground that birthed this movement within in us, made sacred by the transformation that happens here, is where we return. Though as holy as it was two years ago, it is not the same. It is a dynamic place. This will be as new, exciting and dynamic of an experience as that initial meeting—so full of dreams and possibility—was.

In the next two months, while unFound hangs in the hallowed halls of Holbrook, we will (re)discover, (un)find, and (trans)form along the way.

watching us being watched

there is something fascinating about watching the way people approach your artwork. our the course of the development of this project, one of the priorities of this project was to ask people to approach the art work in an unfamiliar way, to make art that required people to engage more deeply than simply standing in front of a picture. we wanted our artwork to be a journey in and of itself. the result: an installation to invited engagement: touching to read all the poems, lighting incense, walking in bare feet, and maybe even pondering and praying. we wanted to pull more out of our audience.

so, on friday night, many people came to interplayce without knowing what to expect--both strangers, and people who knew the artists.

once the doors were open, there were four ways that strangers engaged (or didn't) our artwork.
1. poking head in the door and deciding it wasn't up his or her alley
2. coming a few feet in the door and reading the poster
3. coming ten feet in the door to read the booklet of poems and look at the installation from there
4. coming all the way into the room, walking around the installation, to read and engage all the work.

someone asked me if it bothered me that so many people peeked without coming in. i figured it was a natural result of this intention to encourage folks to engage in the artwork in a new way. not everyone will want to engage. that is that.

this was one of the interesting differences between displaying the installation in an art venue and in a church. at central united methodist, no one expected to engage art in their church, and with fewer expectations for what art should be, they were willing to engage. in an art venue, with a long list of expectations, that may have not been met, some people did not want to engage.

such is life. i hope we pushed the boundaries of art as much as we intended to.

unFound at Interplayce Oct. 3rd

This Friday, we'll be taking unFound to Interplayce on Telegraph in Oakland. Come join us.

unFound: a Poetry and Visual Art Exhibition

Friday, October 3, 2008
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Interplayce
2273 Telegraph
Oakland, CA

Come find out what it's all about!

How else do we recover and uncover our holy spaces...?

Since I started working on this project in 2007, I've been thinking about several different kinds of holy grounds that we traversed during our Jan. 2007 trip to S.E. Asia. And those spaces have triggered thoughts about other kinds of sacred space. Tonight, I want to highlight a few of the physical/geographical spaces that have haunted my memories for the past few months. (I think of this tonight b/c of a particular conversation that I carried with a few friends earlier this evening.)

(1) When we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels in Viet Nam, I marveled at the incredibly creative and dangerous tunnels and pathways that were carved into the ground. These tunnels were places that led to certain death for some soldiers. For other soldiers, these tunnels were sanctuaries, refuges, and security. For those of us who traveled through these tunnels in 2007, and for me especially, these tunnels were places filled with mystery and ambiguity. I scurried through them in fear (of the dark and other things) and in sadness, thinking of the tragic war that led to the building of these underground tunnels.

(2) The concrete ground of the dinosaur church in Stockton was a very different "holy ground". That was the space where we exhibited our memories for the first time -- memories and interpretations and reflections of the journeys that transformed our lives. In fact, we literally scattered some of the words of our memories onto the ground right in the middle of this space. We transformed it by bringing back the memories through our very presence.

(3) The 100+ steps of the temple in Malaysia which we visited. We walked up and down those steps, with me clinging to the side bars. I was deathly afraid of the height and feared I would fall every time I took a step up or down. That trail, that pathway took more of my energy and my time than anything. I thought about, worried over, feared, and admired those steps more than the huge golden statue of the god at the foot of the mountain (and standing guard at the top of the stairs). The people who went up and down those treacherous steps inspired more awe and respect and admiration from me b/c they went up and down those steps -- not because they bowed at the statue or because they lit some incense inside the cave temple. It was the act of traveling those stairs -- that treacherous ground -- that caught my attention.

(4) The sandy beach in Nha Trang was where we met our embodied "Jesus". As our group stood in barefeet in a circle, singing and breaking bread together, a homeless man entered our circle and talked with us and welcomed us and hugged us. We encountered a stranger who defied our stereotypes and who challenged our understandings of "sacred" and "community". The area where that encounter occurred was our sacred space -- a space where our mis/pre-conceptions were overturned, transformed, re-invented.

Drawing our selves in image and word

Today, Abby and I went back to Central UMC in Stockton to lead workshops on art and poetry writing. After attending the 11:00 a.m. service with the congregation, we had a quick lunch prepared by one of the church ladies and then started talking about art and poetry.

Abby started us off by asking us to describe our holy spaces. We then used various color tools to draw, sketch, etch, and basically color-convey our responses to her reading of the Matthew 16 passage about taking up our cross and following Jesus. For the first reading, we were asked to first use only colors (no shapes) as an expression of our response. Then, after the 2nd reading, we were asked to use lines and shapes to respond. After the third reading, we were to respond with specific images. After each section, we shared with one another what we had created, paying attention to acknowledging the beauty and meaning behind each of our creations.

In the poetry writing portion, we listened to the images in several poems and used our five senses to visualize our sacred spaces. We then used words we had written down to craft haiku. Without a lot of time remaining, we shared our haiku and thought about how effectively we used words -- language -- to express what we feel/sense/know/think about our holy spaces (which we talked about at the beginning of the art portion). I was amazed at the variety of haiku that we wrote, each with its own uniqueness.

Even though we had a few changes to our original plans, the overall experience was moving, transformative, and creative. I learned a great deal from these individuals about their lives, their passions, and their faiths. I hope they were able to bring away at least something meaningful from this experience.

Missed the opening? See the pictures!

unFound Opening: Reception & Reading
Central UMC, Stockton, CA
Friday, Sept. 5, 2008

It's official!

Congratulations to unFound on officially opening in Stockton at Central UMC on Friday, 9/5!!

Abby and I arrived in CUMC at about 11:30 a.m. and we worked for hours setting up the space. One of the most amazing and challenging portions of the set-up was when I worked with the poem The Undoing. Abby had the brilliant idea of writing the text of the poem on the floor of the exhibit space, but b/c we couldn't actually write on the concrete, the text was written on contact paper, and Abby had to very tediously cut out portions of the poem. Putting the poem back together took forever -- complicated by the fact that I do not memorize (gasp!) my poems.

It was easy to identify the stanzas and to string together the primary words in each line, but w tripped me up were the articles, conjunctions, punctuations. It also took quite a long time to remove the contact paper backing and apply the words to the ground.

This particular step was helpful for me. It was literally a cut-and-paste revision. In my head, I was able to identify the unnecessary filler words that could be cut to pare the poem down to its essence. Something about the fiscality of cutting and pasting words on the ground really helped. It was amazing to see the poem cut apart into jumbled puzzle-pieces, then pieced together into meaningful lines that spiraled on the ground. We really immersed ourselves in "the undoing" of the poem!

Even though the Stockton heat was unbearable -- even with four fans blowing full blast in the hall -- we still had a great turn out. People walked in and out of the installation, looking carefully and looking hard for the tiny details found in the embroidered poems, in the hand-drawn outlines, and the ironed pages of books.

During the reading and presentation, I was amazed to see their open, attentive faces nodding in response to poems that were being read out loud. It was worth it just to see their reaction. And, I hope, their understanding of the poems will deepen their understanding and appreciation of the installation.

I can't possibly end this post without mentioning our host for the evening. The entire event at CUMC would not have happened without Alan's organization, management, hosting, and inspiration. We had great set-up and great food. The details were perfect, right down to the beautifully arrayed napkins and batik table centerpieces. We owe it all to Principal Alan Cook extraordinaire.

unFound: a poetry and visual art exhibition
Artwork designed by Abby King Kaiser
Poetry written by Hoang-Anh Tran
Hosted by Alan Cook!

opening at Central UMC, Stockton

Last night we opened unFound with a crowd of about thirty people. A reading sparked many interesting conversations, and it was fascinating to watch people walk through our installation as they might walk a labyrinth.

Over the many months that we constructed this piece, and more than the year that we have been discussing it, there were many many times that I felt that this would never be real. But, as we sweated through hundred degree Central Valley heat, laying out shoes, ordering words and hanging fabric, the magnitude of seeing a creative vision through hit me. We had something to say, we experienced something that we thought spoke to the human condition, and we expressed it.

Sunday we will return to Stockton to give workshops, and the exhibition will continue to hang at Central UMC through next weekend.

coming of age as an artist

this week, we open the first "show" that i have ever taken a large part of--outside of my formal education. this endeavor is an independent collaboration of a couple of artists with a vision, outside of institutional support. upon diving into this process, i had no idea the level of courage, perseverance, organizing, patience and even errand-running that would be required. so much of the work i have done for this project seems unrelated to the art itself, and yet without that work, the art would not happen.

i find significant difficulty in trying to interpret this work to friends and family, who are naturally curious about how i am spending my time these days. when asked why i am doing this, i can't come up with a good answer. it seems the answer simply is that i have to. it has been developing for so long, it just must be poured out.

i am learning what it takes to be an artist. i am drawing on reserves i didn't know i had, discovering new parts of myself in the process, for good and bad.

unFound: a poetry & visual art exhibition

unFound exhibition calendar:
5-12 sept. 2008
central united methodist church
3700 pacific avenue, stockton, ca
friday, 5 sept., 7:30 p.m.
opening reception & reading
saturday, 6 sept., 1-3 p.m.
art & poetry workshops

3-4 oct. 2008
Interplayce
2273 telegraph ave.
Oakland, CA

15 oct.— 15 dec. 2008
bade museum
pacific school of religion
1798 scenic avenue, berkeley, ca

In the spaces of travel, discoveries of the “Other” have inevitably changed the traveler in ways both unimaginable and indescribable. Going on a journey demands a redefinition of what is found and what is lost within the multi-cultural, inter-religious, socio-historical contexts of Southeast Asia.

Throughout time, Art and Poetry have served as vehicles through which these journeys are re-envisioned and these experiences recreated; Art and Poetry help to reveal the complexities surrounding these encounters. Through art, the undoing of pre-conceived intelligences moves from abstract to concrete contexts. Poetry articulates the re-construction of found knowledge that occurs in variegated forms and in the marginalized spaces.

unFound is an exhibition (un)founded on poetry and visual art to explore the multi-dimensions of holy encounters ever-present in journeys of unraveling. unFound presents to travelers and non-travelers alike an opportunity to engage in self-critical reflection within the contexts of an increasingly globalized world.

Mine or yours or ours?

I've nurtured a love-hate relationship with found poetry for a long while now, so it was quite surprising when I found myself writing a found poetry series. Even more unusual was that I felt, from the very beginning, 100% certain that I was going to use that found poetry series as the foundation for a poetry/visual art installation. After our return to the States from the Southeast Asia trip in Jan2007, I knew almost immediately (even before the worship at PSR was planned) that I needed to write a poetry series based upon our trip. I even knew that I wanted to use the reflections that the trip participants had written -- use them as material from which the poems would be crafted.

All this knowing wasn't really "knowing," though. Much like how we intuit our way around a dark room, I was intuiting my way through this process of writing found poems. I resisted the urge for such a long while because, deep down inside, I've always felt the poems would not really be my poems, that they would always be Person X's poems. When we think of craft and aesthetics, when we think of subjects, how can we say that culling a poem (fully sprung or not) from some other text qualifies as writing poetry from the depths of our felt experience?

What I realized, however, as I moved through revision after revision, was that the poems are my own. They are completely different from the very first version that included the original texts. The sense of the poem, the heart-essence of the poem, even the rhythm and feel of the poem are all new and special and unique. I feel thoroughly justified, satisfied, and fulfilled in calling them my own for they are so different in manifestation and forms that I can hardly recognize them.

When writing about craft, I'll have to be more precise. For the time being, I can only say I am learning to live with the poems as they are... whether found or unfound.

art is work

since i graduated from college, i have spent very little time overall making art in long stretches. i forgot how hard it is. yes it is a joy, yes it is where life comes form for me, but it is work.

having spent so much time talking about this project, thinking through this project, putting paintbrush to paper (or shoes in this instance) is surprisingly hard for me. it is not for lack of a plan, lack of content, lack of inspiration. i feel full of all of these things. i think it is fear. fear of such public work. fear of the authority i will be given as an artist. fear of how people will listen when i give workshops on this. fear that i won't like my own work.

and yet, courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision that something is more important than fear.

this is more important than fear. art is more important than fear.

unFound's poetic muse

Before there was the image, unFound began first with the word. No, not Logos, per se, but the poetic word. The inspiration for the poems in the crown series that forms the basis for the poetry/visual art installation came from the reflections/meditations that were written by various members of the 15 Gang that traveled to Southeast Asia. The writings were collected, permission acquired from the authors, and the crafting began. The transformation from prose to poetry was arduous and still is arduous, but the process exemplifies the heart of a line I've drawn from a poem I read a while back:

Would there be this eternal seeking if the found existed?

Even though we were working with found poetry, the heart, the essence of the poems needed to be articulated in different ways - ways much more complex than the stringing together of words in discombobulated sentences could attest to.

Each poem manifested itself in distinct form, with varying depths and colors, with differing points of access.

At first, the poems came together in large chunks that tried to capture the meaning of the prose reflections. At Turn #1, the poems began to morph and shift to express their own sensibilities. At Turn #4, the series began to show itself as a cohesiveness series. In its sixth iteration, the series is looking much, much stronger with a more solid foundation.

I've been vary pleased with the progression these poems have made. I hope you'll be able to continue traveling with us to see the poems in their current manifestations.

If you're ever lost, find yourself at unFound: unfound2008@gmail.com.

travelers wanted: you!

After our trip to Southeast Asia in Jan. 2007, each one of the travelers began thinking about ways of sharing our journeys and our discoveries with others. Some of us preached sermons, some blogged, some wrote poems, and some created visual art -- all this to recreate and deepen our experience of being immersed in multicultural experiences that have transformed our lives.

It became something of an obsession for me, HAT, which blossomed into ideas about writing a crown series of poetry. I collected some of the reflections written by fellow travelers and using them as material crafted a series of poems that expresses the myriad of encounters we experienced on-site. I engaged abbykk in the effort to render these meditations/reflections-turned-poetry as visual art. abbykk's artistic envisionings continue to change and transform, and the words-images are becoming, each day, more and more powerful re-interpretations (not exact, mind you) of the multitude of sights, sounds, and textures that we found on our journeys.

Countless meetings and discussions and emails have led us to this point, when we are able to proudly announce that we have exhibition dates (more details to come), we have a blog, we have email, we have the resources for funding (more forthcoming), and we have great hopes for whatever is ahead, for whatever we will find or unfind on our journey...

One definite resource we hope to find and keep is: you! If you are here reading this, you have already begun the expedition with us. We hope you will be curious enough to remain throughout the journey to find out what exactly we mean by "found" or "unfound".

We will offer you a mixed course of words and images that will shake things up and turn things around. We will question our assumptions and beliefs. We will overturn our misconceptions and interpretations. We will honor our cultures, flaws, and faiths. We will be bold. We will be humbled. We will be awed. We don't want to do this without you. But we will forge ahead. Unravel yourself enough to join us on this journey.

welcome

almost 18 months ago, a groups of seminarians, professors and staff got on a plane to hong kong. we did not know what would come of it, and certainly had no idea we would be writing this blog, this many months later.

we hopped on and off planes, trains, and buses for fourteen days as we made our way from hong kong to singapore, through malaysia to kuala lumpur and finally to vietnam. along the way, we visited churches, temples, and mosques, we met priests, seminarians, professors and students, we sang on sunday morning in a methodist church, we made fools of ourselves in the street over the taste of durian, and mastered the art of crossing the street. but these were the simply the details of something that was much more than the sum of its parts.

we went far from home, and found and unfound ourselves, over and over and over again. we encountered places and people that were new, but encountered ourselves anew as well.

when we returned home, those of us who took the trip as a class, for seminary credit, had to write papers--no surprise there. these reflections were a seed to an art creation that has been germinating ever since, and will flower this fall.

this blog will follow our current journey, grown out of our journey to and through southeast asia and ourselves, as we create art, and bring it to the public.

here you will find our reflections on this journey, as well as keep the details of upcoming exhibitions current.

we hope you will journey with us.