rejon.org is Jon Phillips.

The Cantocore Import Opening went quite well as Lu blogged about on the Cantocore site, primarily in Chinese.

Her photos also unveiled my installation, Artonomics #11: Special Economic Zone, which uses 24, 7 meter pieces of bamboo, constructed into a tower to hold a 1.6 meter by 1 meter LED sign, as often found in Chinese hospitals and government buildings, which displays common economic data that reigns down upon Chinese (and global) citizens about the direction of the new superpower.

Artonomics #11, Special Economic Zone by Jon Phillips

I’m not sure if the installation I made is more interesting than the process of constructing it, as shown below. This involved finding bamboo, trying to get it far across the massive city of Guangzhou (which this fella did by three-wheeled bicycle), hire carpenters to construct it, re-do it to make it stronger, and then put the big LED sign atop the solid structure. Getting the LED screen happened to be the simplest part.

Misako Inaoka, who had a detailed installation with a zen garden, and her hybrid toy creations from Chinese toys (not the poisonous kind!), has also posted her photos up showing off the space and some great highlights of the installation (I’m waiting on the go ahed to post her photos up after she CC licenses them

Above are a couple of my good friends, Hu Xiangqian and Lu Jun, from Guangzhou who are both Lang Zai (pretty boyyyyz).

I’m still pulling together my thoughts from the show right now. I really needed to do something completely different than my gig at Creative Commons, and spending a good solid month on making this show happen successfully really took tons of energy. All the hard work paid off IMO, and I’m hopeful to get some other reviews of the show here shortly to highlight the work.

UPDATE: I just wrote an post on the cantocore.com website about the Cantocore Export opening and updated text on the website. And, Justin just posted a bunch of his photos as well. Here is a sampling:

Last week we did a press barrage for the upcoming Cantocore show in Guangzhou, China! I know a lot of you are spread all throughout the globe, but nonetheless, I hope that anyone in the region can make it for the big September 5th Opening! It will be fantastic.

I wrote the exhibition text, have been coordinating fabrication, and somewhere in the midst trying to finish my project for the exhibition. We are up late right now finishing some projects and the publication is coming along nicely for the last minute print deadline for tomorrow Here is a sampling of the press text which you can read in full at cantocore.com:

Today the Cantocore Project and Ping Pong Space announced the upcoming contemporary art show, Cantocore: Import/Export in Guangzhou, China during September 2008. This initial show features contemporary artists from San Francisco and Guangzhou producing artwork around the more detailed relationship between import and export of culture and materials between Guangzhou, China and San Francisco. This first part of the Cantocore exhibition, Import, begins with an opening on Friday, September 5 from 8 PM at the brand new Ping Pong Space in Guangzhou, China. The show continues until Tuesday, September 16 with gallery hours of 2:00 PM until 10:00 PM daily. The second part of the show, Export, opens Sunday, September 21 at 8 PM until 10 PM when a special video screening developed by San Francisco’s Mission 17 titled “Stardusted” will be presented at the Ping Pong Bar from 10 PM until 11PM. The second half, Export, continues daily until Saturday, October 4 with daily hours from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

The Cantocore Import/Export exhibition examines, through applied art practice, the relationship between import and export of culture between Guangzhou and San Francisco by asking a simple phrase: Are you Cantocore? Guangzhou, also called Canton, is the third most populous city in China and its province, Guangdong, is a major manufacturer of textiles and electronics for export to the United States. San Francisco has the largest import of Chinese immigrants of any US city, primarily from the Guangdong province. Chinese immigrants also created the largest Chinatown in North America in San Francisco. However, understanding the conceptual framework of Cantocore is not limited to geographic divisions, nor reductive dichotomies driven by post-colonial stereotypes such as East vs. West, nor Olympic nationalism pridefully paramount in China vs. US “non-political” sports matches. Cantocore is the reality of life versus the theory set forth by jurisdictions where people live.

The artists in the Cantocore exhibition were tasked with creating projects which explore import and export, materially and conceptually. Practically, how can one’s artwork be actualized either through fabrication locally in Guangzhou or imported from San Francisco? Guidelines for the creation of the work were left alone since modern strategies for creating artwork such as remaking, remixing, interpreting, pirating, translating, copying, and appropriating content, already espouse the Cantocore style. After the proposals were received from invited artists, curation of works took place based upon the processes, scope, location of artists and available resources to constitute this first Cantocore dialogue.

Curation for this show has been a group effort by Deer Fang, Justin Hoover, and Jon Phillips from the Cantocore Project and Wu Jay from Ping Pong Space (PPS). Layout and Design for the show is done by Pierre Picard (PPS) while wordsmithing has been handled by Nikita Choi (PPS), Jon Phillips and Deer Fang.

Exhibition Venue

#60 Xian Lie Dong Heng Lu Ping Pong Space, Guangzhou

Cantocore Import
September 6th - 26th, 2008
Opening: Friday, September 5th, 8PM – 10 PM.
Drinks after at Ping Pong Bar.

Cantocore Export
September 22nd - October 2nd, 2008
Opening: Sunday, September 21st, 8PM - 10PM

Video Screening “Stardusted” at Ping Pong Bar

September 21st 2008, 10PM – 11PM

Regular Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Sunday 2 PM – 10 PM
Gallery Closed on Monday

Ping Pong Bar Open Everyday

Also, we just updated some images of works for the show. Here is a sampling of the full post over at Cantocore.com.

For all you needing images out there, we have just up pushed out images for David Johnson who will be exhibiting a work titled “Made in China” and Guy Overfelt who is getting some magic smoke fabricated.

Guy Overfelt's Untitled (Up in Smoke) Sketch

Please check out the press section to help blog and promote this show!

Loic Lemur came over to CC yesterday and we shot fun video about Seesmic adding CC licensing. Loic sat on Joi’s fixie from Mission Bicycle and I sat on my wife’s cruiser for this one:

The interface looks super-awesome. Great jobs guys and thanks for supporting the commons!

Loic and I at CC

From Joi’s site…I need to get one of those Yukata’s to wear around the house. I have some awesome shoes that Lu’s mom got me from Beijing (they look like stereotypical kung-fu shoe no joke):

News of Seesmic + CC startles me at 5AM