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Ping Chong + Company Presents NOCTURNE REMIX 2020, An Online Gallery Reflecting On The Times
Ping Chong + Company (PCC), founded by the influential theater-maker Ping Chong and a home for a diverse, intergenerational group of affiliated artists, presents Nocturne REMIX 2020, an online gallery of short works reflecting the current moment. Nocturne REMIX 2020 reimagines the postponed performance event Nocturne in 2020, engaging emerging multidiscplinary artists of color, and supporting PCC’s vision for a legacy embodied by the next generation of the company’s social-justice-committed artists. The works—from Edwin Aguila, Kenya Bullock, Irisdelia Garcia, Zakaria Khafagy, and Ping Chong—premiered on Tuesday, June 23 at 7pm, with a live premiere presentation of each work followed by a conversation with the artists.
When plans for the original Nocturne in 2020 work (whose process and structure were to be derived from a concept from the 1998 Hong Kong Arts Festival, where Ping Chong created Nocturne in 1200 Seconds) were halted due to Covid-19, the company invited each artist to create a short online artistic response to the current historical moment. All of the artists engage with source material taken from other works of art, their surrounding environment, and history, to generate reflections in this quarantined state. Full descriptions of the Nocturne Remix 2020 works can be found below.
When the Salmon Spoke from pingchongcompany on Vimeo.
Further providing powerful, socially resonant theater for audiences to experience from home, PCC has also shared two Undesirable Elements works—one a new online production, the other a panel commemorating the 10th anniversary of an acclaimed work. Undesirable Elements is an ongoing series of community-specific interview-based theater works examining issues of culture and identity of individuals who are outsiders within their mainstream community.
When the Salmon Spoke, a new work created by Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission and Ping Chong + Company, in collaboration with SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and Salmon Beyond Borders, is now available to view here. When the Salmon Spoke shares stories from Indigenous communities tied to the “transboundary” rivers shared by northwest British Columbia and southeast Alaska. Drawn together by shared concern over the threats of climate change, a modern-day Gold Rush in northern British Columbia, and declining wild salmon populations, Stikine River Indigenous peoples are seeking reconnection and shared solutions. When the Salmon Spoke is a digital production featuring cinematic imagery, Indigenous music and visual art, and captivating life stories from ten community members of the Stikine River, which connects coastal Tlingit and Haida communities, and inland Tahltan communities of Alaska and British Columbia. The creation of this work is led by Tis Peterman (Tlingit), Annita McPhee (Tahltan), Kirby Muldoe (Gitxsan/Tsimsian), Heather Hardcastle and Ryan Conarro.
Honoring the 10th anniversary of the acclaimed Undesirable Elements production Secret Survivors, PCC has made available the documentary Secret Survivors: Using Theater to Break the Silence, a film by Melanie Vi Levy, the archived video of the original performance, and the 10th anniversary panel event. Secret Survivors is a groundbreaking interview-based theater production in theUndesirable Elements series, conceived by Amita Swadhin, written and directed by Ping Chong + Company Associate Director Sara Zatz, featuring adult survivors of child sexual abuse telling their true stories on stage. Surrounding the anniversary, on April 5, PCC co-hosted a digital panel with Mirror Memoirs and Girls for Gender Equity - GGE to reflect on the impact of the original production, the role of art and storytelling in prevention and healing, and to celebrate the resilience of survivors, with a focus on survivorship during COVID and the experiences of trans and gender non-conforming and survivors of color. The panel recording—featuring panelists Ignacio Rivera (Founder, The HEAL Project), Shanée Smith (Sisters in Strength Program Manager, Girls for Gender Equity), Quentin Walcott (Co-Executive Director, CONNECT NYC ), Sara Zatz (Writer/Director of Secret Survivors, Associate Director, Ping Chong + Company), moderated by Amita Swadhin (Co-Creator, Secret Survivors; Founder, Mirror Memoirs), and with a grounding meditation led by Aishah Shahidah Simmons (Creator #LoveWITHAccountability™) and therapeutic support from Ebony Williams, LMFT, YTT-200—is available here.
Nocturne Remix 2020 Works
Edwin Aguila
NY's Symbol of Hope
A single image and voiceover recording that shows triumph through hard times, inspired by My Hero Academia, a Japanese anime series. Edwin Aguila is a hip-hop artist and actor from Brooklyn.
Kenya Bullock
Untitled
A series of images that offers a raw exploration of mental and physical transformation during quarantine. Kenya Bullock is a theater director and multidisciplinary artist from Trenton, NJ.
Ping Chong
The Aleph, de Maistre and me
A new video work on the theme of confinement, time, and infinite, inspired by Xavier de Maistre’s 1794 book, Voyage Around My Room. Ping Chong is Artistic Director of Ping Chong + Company and an internationally acclaimed theatre artist and pioneer in the use of media in the theater.
Irisdelia Garcia
aguanile||incorruptibility
A video recorded piece performed in a bathtub drawn from Adál Maldonado’a photo series Puerto Ricans Underwater, the artist’s struggle with solitude during this time, and the trend of mummifying and preserving saints in Catholicism, and challenging religion’s colonial grasp on colonized land. Irisdelia Garcia is a New York-based scholar and interdisciplinary artist from the Bronx, New York
Zakaria Khafagy
Springtide
Springtide explores our current pandemic using digital animation and photography through the eyes of a groundhog awakening from hibernation in early Spring. Zakaria Khafagy is a hip hop / visual artist, actor, and playwright from Queens, NY.
