2024 T!C Lantern Residency Artist, Alison Kuo
Photo by Tommy Kha
Alison Kuo is a second generation immigrant who pursues intersectional relationships across communities through artistic engagement. She is the co-founder of the group Sisters in Self-Defense based in Manhattan’s Chinatown along with the writer Ava Chin. She has worked as a teaching artist at the Abrons Art Center, the W.O.W. Project, the Hamilton-Madison House Senior Center, and Think!Chinatown and has served as faculty in the SVA MFA Fine Arts Program.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Rainbow Dragon 彩虹龍 (or as we like to call him, Hong Hong 虹虹) is a Lunar New Year celebratory dragon who emerged from some of Think!Chinatown's favorite housewares shops. His head is made of multicolored buckets, sponges, brushes, clothespins, rice bowls and more, with flowing whiskers of red plastic twine, and his body is a shimmering quilt of stitched together recycled textiles. Hong Hong's cheerfulness reminds us of the homey domestic rituals that bring a bit of brightness to our everyday lives as people of the Asian diaspora.
Photo by Cal Hsiao
2023 T!C Lantern Residency Artist, Jacqueline Tam
On Jan 22, Jacqueline’s lantern, “I’m Thinking of You”, joined the festivities amongst the Lunar New Year confetti and lion dancing with old and new friends, family, and community members!
ARTIST STATEMENT
“I’m Thinking of You” brings together my meditations on home and my longing for friends and family who are scattered all around the world.
Throughout the lantern, I’ve depicted Pacific Swifts which migrate between China, Southeast Asia, and Australia, and are birds that I observed during a recent trip to Hong Kong, a city where I spent many formative years. Having lived in multiple places throughout my life, migratory birds such as these, have helped me accept how I can never quite put a finger on where “home” is. Migration is a fact of life and has been for all time - not just for birds, but for many people around the world who relocate, flee, or are displaced. Home is a place that is constantly in flux.
The other panels on the lantern hold the 'Lost Words'. These improvisational and gestural glyphs represent the language that can only come with sharing physical space with each other. This is the language of a comforting hand on the arm, of slowing down to match the pace of one’s walking companion, and of sharing a meal around a table and its many rituals. These are the lost words that don't make it through the weekly calls and video chats but can bridge generation gaps and language barriers.
My hope is that these swifts, who are in constant motion will capture and deliver these lost words across the oceans and the spaces that divide to say…“I’m thinking of you”.
Jacqueline Tam is a Hong Kong-American illustrator based in Brooklyn, NY. Her illustrations have appeared in editorial publications, on book covers and consumer packaging, and her works have been recognized by The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration and 3x3 Magazine.
2022 T!C Lantern Residency Artist, Jia Sung
Meet “Guardian Xianchan”
Drawing from traditional art forms, lanterns created by T!C’s Lantern Artist Residency reflect our community while celebrating the holiday in new ways. This year, we've invited artist Jia Sung to create a portable art installation to add to Chinatown’s New Year festivities. Her piece, “Guardian Xianchan*,” is based on the Chinese textile tradition of tiger hats (虎頭帽). Originally worn by children to protect them from evil spirits and bless them with a tiger’s strength, this lantern rendition is scaled up to superhuman size for an adult dancer to inhabit by day, and lights up as a beacon by night. The tiger, a traditional auspicious symbol in Chinese culture, represents courage, power, and dignity — fitting qualities to invoke for Lunar New Year.
Along with the many lion dance companies performing on the streets of Chinatown, Jia’s lantern joined the festivities on New Year's Day, Feb 1 on Mott Street, and on Super Saturday, Feb 12.
*Guardian Xianchan — 衔蝉 means “Cicada Eater/Catcher”, a popular cat name in ancient China. Cats were seen, then as now, as playful and spoiled creatures, who “rested in the shade of flowers, catching cicadas and hunting butterflies.”
Jia Sung is an artist and educator, born in Minnesota, bred in Singapore, now based in Brooklyn. Her work draws on motifs from Chinese mythology and folklore, and spans paintings, artist books, textiles, printmaking, and murals. @jiazilla
Photos by Cindy Trinh
2021 T!C Lantern Residency Artist, Rose Wong
“We The Lantern” is a wearable lantern art piece. Each piece of fabric features illustrations in black ink showcasing the neighborhood’s efforts, care and resilience since the pandemic. Imagery includes people, storefronts, mutual aid efforts, while highlighting various scenes of life in Chinatown throughout this time. “We The Lantern” will be hung as a decorative item when not worn.
Red lanterns, a popular item used in times of celebration, represent prosperity and wealth. The idea for Wong’s wearable lantern was inspired by the people in the community who have been the constant, moving force keeping Chinatown afloat during these dark times. “We The Lantern” was created to symbolize how the collective power of the people will light our way toward a better and brighter future.
The lantern was revealed on New Year’s Day on Mott & Mosco Street amongst all the confetti and lion dancing by Tai Look.
Rose Wong is a Chinese-American illustrator who graduated from Pratt Institute in 2014 and has been living in Brooklyn since. She is known for her editorial work and has worked with clients such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, Bon Appétit, Medium and more. In addition to her commercial work, Rose also extends her practice to murals, ceramics and book making. Her most recent collaborations with Think!Chinatown have included Assembly for Chinatown, Moon Square Exhibit, and Light Up Chinatown.
2020 T!C Lantern Residency Artist, Yao Xiao
“Creativity Engine” is a lantern with illustrated details depicting various types of arts practiced in Chinatown. There is a rotating inner shell at the center depicting a scene of celebration of Lunar New Year, showing a community connecting through the arts, The overall piece is a representation of an ecosystem of creativity constructed by the location, artists, and community.
The design of this lantern is inspired by traditional Chinese revolving lantern, called Zou Ma Deng ⾛⻢灯, a popular decoration and toy since the Qin dynasty. Traditionally, the lantern is made of rattan and paper. A revolving lantern brings life and movement to ancient celebrations, just like arts and creativity brings movement in our modern lives.
The lantern was revealed at Pearl River Mart on Lunar New Years Day. It was paraded on Mott Street on Super Saturday, then displayed at 3 Essex Street from Lunar New Year through February. On the Lantern Festival, T!C hosted a community lantern party where we decorated lanterns, hung lanterns, made tangyuan, ate tangyuan, gazed at the first full moon of the year, caught up with neighbors, and made new friends. Grand Tea & Imports served tea with all of our party snacks.
Yao Xiao was born in China and emigrated to the United States at age 16. After graduation in 2013 with a degree in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts, Yao sought a way to document her experiences as a queer immigrant in and developed a series of comics incorporating illustration and writing. She continued to build on this practice and today is a successful illustrator, cartoonist and writer. Yao’s work has been featured in Buzzfeed, National Geographic, TIME Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal among others. Yao has shown her work at galleries in New York, San Francisco and Seattle. “Instantaneous Freedom,” exhibited in conjunction with the T!C Lantern Residency, is her first solo art exhibition.
2019 T!C Lantern Residency Artist, Lulu Meng
Totality 全福
The lantern art installation draws its inspiration from an object appropriate for the Year of the Boar, a piggy bank. Instead of directly referencing the image of a piggy bank, the circular lantern art piece focuses on its symbolic meanings and reflects the idea of complete and reunion. (圓滿、團圓) .
LuLu Meng is a New York-based artist born in Taipei, Taiwan. Her multidisciplinary practice, including installation, sculpture, photography, drawing and video, explores the difference and similarity among cultures and people. http://www.lulumeng.space
Thank you to DLJ for sponsoring the artwork.