Sunday, February 24, 2008

2/24/08 - Group Visit to Religous Institutions







Curator Hitomi and her assistant Marie made a map of several religious organizations' in a small area near the heart of Flushing so that, as a group, all of us artists participating in this forthcoming exhibition can visit and talk about/share our ideas and the projects with each religious leader.

It was very nice to meet up with the other artists and explain our individual ideas to churches and temples. We were able to comprehend what directions we can take and share input with each other while walking around central Flushing.

Due to our limited time, we randomly chose, and managed to visit 7 different religious institutions. (10am to 4pm)

Again, there are more than 300 religious organizations in the town of Flushing in Queens.
If you walk around the area, you can see large and small churches and temples almost every
15 seconds...

Since Sunday is the day most of the organizations have some sort of service, we visited each of the places several times to find the moment to meet and talk about our exhibition and projects.

All of the organizations were welcoming to us, and expressed interest in participating in this exhibition and despite the fact that they were quite busy, leaders listened to each of our projects carefully and asked questions.

There were many interesting experiences, but I would like to share one here.

We visited Dung Temple at the end of the religious visits today. When Jose Ruiz asked if the leader could come to QMA to give a service, he answered quietly but soon more passionately. Essentially, he is unable to do so. He said that they brought a Buddhist statue from Korea and put the soul into the statue. There is a specific ceremony and extended ritual for that. Therefore, they would not be able to come to museum and suddenly give a service. They cannot bring them all. If the monk talked about that story, it would be a lecture, not a service. I felt this was more sincere and true in their case. Some of religions are capable of giving services at any place and any time, but others require certain situations or locations.

Also, he explained that this is not just one time service. In their Buddhism, believers are doing so as everyday practice for themselves, by themselves. Monks are not able to give anything. Each practices to control him or herself from brain to soul (pointing around our stomach). It takes times. I guess the easiest explanation for us could be that it's like practicing YOGA. It takes awhile to do so. (Sorry for this slightly incorrect example.) Therefore, videotaping the monk's service and projects on screen at QMA also does not work.

When I was in High school, I had already seen such high-tech services in Tokyo. This could come down to philosophical questions rather than absolute right and wrong. My grandma was glad to listen to services and talk through a cassette tape since she was unable to walk to her temple and she did not want her monk to come to her home since she did not want to show herself in her elderly condition at home.

By the way, this temple's members are mostly elderly Koreans living around the NYC area. Every year it is becoming harder for the community members to visit.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

2/20/08 - Next Trial to find participants

Several friends from all over nation (laugh) nicely gave me input.
Thank you so much!

Late this evening, while I was Google-ing and learning where cultural institutions are in NYC,
and which ones I could possibly work with, Hitomi called me.
She is one of the curators for this exhibition and is helping me co-ordinate various aspects of my project.

She and the QMA education department staff member, Laura, discussed the
next possible steps. We might focus on already existing groups of kids through
religious organizations. Usually there are some kids education programs within
church, temples, and/or mosques. We might try to talk to them to see if they are interested in participating in our idea.

Wow, that seems to be an interesting idea!
I started checking for listings of such programs in the Flushing area, but surprisingly,
I cannot find any such info online.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Week of 2/18/08 - In Search of Possible Participants

By the second week (ideally the first week) of March,
I have to be able to get in touch with possible students participants and
religious organizations in Flushing, Queens, NY.

These are the ages of students I am looking for:

Students between age 10 - 12/13 = Drawing church/temple
Students between age 12 - 14/15 = Building church/temple pavilion
Students between age 12 - 18 = Learning and disseminating the religion


After considering the various possibilities, I have begun to realize I should get in touch with private schools and community centers....
Right now, I cannot go further than this basic sketch of the plan...

2/15/08 - Meeting with Public School Educators


Last Friday morning (2/15), I was invited to have a meeting and give a formal presentation of my project to a group of public school educators that have a partnership with the QMA Education program.

-------------------
Actually, I forgot one meeting that happened before this presentation, so let me start there.

Previously, on January 31, I had a third discussion with Hitomi and Lauren Schloss, the director of the Education department. When I walked through the museum with Hitomi (1/13), she had mentioned their great art education program. That had also helped inspire my project. So, Hitomi and Lauren discussed with me the possibilities for realizing my project with the help of the education department.

Lauren seemed very passionate about education for kids and teenagers. I was excited and appreciate her input. She listened carefully and asked very precise questions.

"So, I understand the intention of not directing the children while they are drawing at a temple, but then when do they actually learn the reality of that religion, and not the misinformed version they created for themselves?"

That question was honestly one that I had not really expected simply because I felt that elementary students would learn best through their eyes and then later correct what impressions they had taken by visiting the information sessions/performances held by Junior High School students at the opening (5/18).

However, as part of an education program, I guess leaving things this vague might not be good for kids. It is hard for me to tell as I am not teaching Art to kids professionally.

She said that students might be confused about the religions through the process of my project,
and left separated from the truth, might create their own concept. I think she said something like this. Then, she suggested that we might collect any questions coming from the kids during
their drawing sessions and later use such questions to teach them about each religion.

This is something I always appreciate learning from professionals. I am not an amature but do not have enough experience to be so professional. I do not want to simply use kids for my
project. I really would like students to learn something new while enjoying artistic creativity.

We had a pretty detailed discussion over a good two and half hours!
Lauren was pretty nice. I got a good feeling from her.
Then, I got email invitation to give presentation to public school educators.
Sounds Great!

-------------------

So, Lauren nicely gave me opportunity to talk to public school educators to find out about the possibility of working with them somehow.

Well, the result was unfortunately, simply, "NO..." but not because the project didn't interest them. It is simply because they cannot touch the topic of religion due to the current interpretation of the separation of church and state.

I had heard of that before. But, as an foreigner, I was totally shocked by the degree to which this affect life, and specifically education, here. I simply did not know this reality.

When I presented the project idea initially, I was encouraged by the educators' reactions. They mostly seemed to say that this project sounded like a very good way for kids to learn about religions. Also, they said learning about them as Elementary, Junior high and High school students, rather than later, was an interesting idea. I was confused. If that is a good idea, why couldn't you help us?

After the meeting, we had lunch and I had a chance to talk to a couple of educators.
Essentially, at public school, which is regulated by the city government, they cannot teach anything directly, or even really remotely related to religion.

One Principle said that her school used to decorate a Christmas tree and celebrate Hanukka, but now we won't be able to do so. Instead, they simply hold a "winter celebration" and never teach anything about the actual holidays.

My question that came up after this was how they teach historical events
or cultural beliefs that are related to religion. They told me that they have to come up with teaching materials that are purely "cultural studies" and are not specifically or obviously about religion.

I actually agree that teaching one specific religion might cause discrimination toward
other religions. But, we cannot possibly teach hundreds of different religions at the same time.
However, if we don't generally discuss at least the major world religions how and when can young students have a chance to learn or interact with such interesting and varied beliefs, or realize their effect on different cultural and historical events and artifacts.

The principle said that that is why they have to think hard to come up with ideas of what to teach that are not directly speaking of religion but still touch on its real impact on our world.

I asked if I there could be any way to explain everything in my project as a cultural study and so that I could work with public school students. They again simply said, "NO." In my project's case, students would be meeting a religious leader, even if they were simply drawing from pictures of a religious space that I took in advance. Oh wow, despite the fact that, in front of the schools, there are more than 300 real example of religious organizations, they have to use second hand material to learn! I simply never imagined this.

Personally, again, this was very new experience as Japanese person.
This is quite new to let me think about the meaning of "separation of church and state."

In short,
my project is already in tough situation....!
I will need to find students from somewhere else.

What is This Project Then?

So, I got this idea after the first meeting.

This is formal proposal detail so a bit long...

"Meet Me at the Unisphere"


In the spirit of the Flushing Remonstrance, religious and cultural diversity has flourished in Queens, giving us the unique opportunity to access a variety of different religious viewpoints in one community. However, in our fast-tempo sound-byte contemporary culture, deep consideration of other religious views is often skipped in favor of brief facts, superficial impressions, and hearsay. Thus information is transmitted and repeated from source to source, and like a photocopy, slightly changed and obscured with each generation.

The work I propose will replicate this process, but with a twist. The purveyors of this information will be children, with their uniquely innocent way of grasping, or misunderstanding information. I will have an open call for elementary school children’s drawing, asking them to visit, with their parents’ permission a church, a temple, a synagogue, and/or a mosque, and draw what they see or understand from their visits. These drawings can be of anything they notice on their trips. The drawings collected from this open call will then be passed on to middle school students who will be asked to create booths (one per religion) based on these drawings. The booths will be constructed beneath the Unisphere and each one will represent one of the four major religions included in this project.

Next, I will have leaders from these various religions come and explain their beliefs and practices to the group of middle school students over a series of discussion sessions. I will then ask the middle school students to man the booths and explain a bit about the religion they are representing, based on what they grasped from the sessions with the religious leaders, to visitors on a specified "performance" day. Like a game of telephone, it is likely that certain information will get distorted in the process, but which information, and how it is distorted should be quite revealing.

The entire process would be open to public unless specifically notified.

Monday, February 18, 2008

1/18/08 - My New Proposal

I came back to home very much preoccupied with the "Unisphere," originally created for the World's Fair in 1964.

You can probably find many resource on the web about it, or if you are old enough,
you yourself might have experienced the exciting expo at that time.

The "Unisphere" was built under the theme, "Understanding others."
Hmm, it sounds a bit ironic to us now, perhaps. More than 40 years after it was erected,
how well do we really understand others?

Needless to say, we are unable to make a Disney World-like peaceful and beautiful
global community on earth, however.

But, by being next to the "Unisphere" on this pretty cold winter day, I again feel that what is more important is to pursue it. This coming QMA exhibition is a very interesting theme.
Religious freedom, as first derived from the Flushing Remonstrance.

Religion is our own personal belief, not something we can force others to believe.
But, such institutions indirectly, and sometimes directly affect others' lives.

1/16/08 - First Proposals did not Work


Today was my first meeting with Chief curator Valerie Smith, Hitomi Iwasaki and Prerana Reddy....

We discussed the possibility of two different projects based off of my previous performance pieces. Unfortunately, due to the constraints of the project, it does not look like either one will work.

Hitomi and I walked through the museum together for a bit of a brain-storming session afterwards. I had visited this very unique museum before, but alway only for brief moments.
Since they house a large scale model of all of New York City in the center of the museum, the floor plan for the exhibition space is around a rounded wall forming the outside of an oval. I looked through exhibition and then looked outside from the east-side windows. There is huge sculpture of the earth outside. I knew of it, having passed it on the highway before, but had never had the chance to look at it carefully.

After leaving museum, I walked to the sculpture, entitled "Unisphere."
It is like a skeleton of the earth, placed on top of a fountain. Probably because it is winter, the fountain was turned off. Instead, a couple of teenagers were enjoying skateboarding. Yeah,
it must be a great place for that. So, I went inside of fountain.

"Oh wow this sculpture is really really huge!"
That is my first impression. Interestingly, you can see through each continent.
So, I looked at Austrailia near the base, but beyond that land, you can see the backside of the North American continent.

The Himalayan mountains in the North edge of India are, in fact, a bit higher than
the rest of the land.

This fascination I felt of the Unisphere led to my new idea.

(To be continued, or check out my profile for this project summary)

1/10/08 - Receving commission

After the start of 2008, I got an email from Queens Museum of Art curator, Hitomi Iwasaki. She wanted to visit my studio. My studio has been in transition with everything packed away in boxes, so I had no way of showing anything. Instead, we discussed over the phone and she looked through my website.

She explained that she was working on an up-coming group exhibition plan related to religion. I thought through possible project proposals, based on my past work, and visited the museum.

This exhibition title is:
"'This Case of Conscience:' Spiritual Flushing and the remonstrance."
It does not make sense if you do not know what the Flushing Remonstrance is.
Yes, I did not know anything about that document at the time.

What is it?

As the QMA states in their summary of the exhibition:

"The Flushing Remonstrance is widely regarded as a precursor to the provision on religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Signed on December 27, 1657, this document of protest was conceived by New Netherlands colonists who resided in Flushing and strenuously opposed the persecution of religions outside the established Reformed Dutch Church. Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, had issued an edict prohibiting any colonist from entertaining Quakers or hosting Quaker meetings in his or her home. When eminent settler Henry Townsend held such a meeting and was subsequently punished with a fine and banishment, a group of thirty-odd Flushing citizens responded with the Flushing Remonstrance, which eloquently championed the cause of religious tolerance.

"David William Voorhees, Director of the Papers of Jacob Leisler Project at New York University, observes that the cause of freedom of conscience was well-entrenched in the Dutch Republic and in the sixteenth-century Dutch constitution “as a cornerstone in the foundation of their state.” Invoking the “freedom from molestation” clause of their 1645 town charter, the Remonstrance petitioners asserted that the “law of love, peace and liberty in the states extend[s] to Jews, Turks [Muslims] and Egyptians [Romany],” and that “our desire is not to offend one of his little ones, in whatsoever form, name or title hee [sic] appears in, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker.” In terms that seem to presage modern-day concepts of pluralism and religious liberty, the signers of the Remonstrance argued unequivocally for the right of the individual to worship as he or she saw fit: “Wee [sic] desire therefore in this case not to judge least [sic] we be judged, neither to condemn least we be condemned, but rather let every man stand or fall to his own Master. Wee are bounde [sic] by the law to do good unto all men, especially to those of the household of faith. And though for the present we seem to be unsensible [sic] for the law and the Law giver, yet when death and the Law assault us, if wee have our advocate to seeke [sic], who shall plead for us in this case of conscience betwixt God and our own souls….”

"Stuyvesant ordered the arrest of four of the signers, including Remonstrance author and town clerk Edward Hart and sheriff Tobias Feake. Hart was later banished from the colony and Feake pardoned only after a formal apology. Additionally, the Flushing town government was dismantled and supplanted with Dutch appointments hand-picked by Stuyvesant. However, Quakerism continued to flourish throughout Long Island and the Hudson Valley, as did resistance to the persecution of its practitioners, culminating in the 1663 removal of the ban by the burghers back in Holland and simultaneous launch of religious freedom in the colony. With its galvanizing language and pivotal role in sparking such important reforms, the Flushing Remonstrance remains a powerful touchstone for current considerations of religious liberty and mutual respect."



Currently, Flushing, Queens has more than 300 religious organizations!
It's hard to believe, but I received a list of all of them, compiled by the NY City Hall. It's really amazing!

Monday, February 11, 2008

1/08/08 - Beginning of New Project


January 8th, 2007, I received one email from a curator, Hiromi Iwasaki at Queens Museum of Art.
It does not explain the detail, but just mentioned she liked to visit my studio.
This was the beginning of this project.