“Movable Feast: Chicago” collaborative truck project Between Hoyun Son and Jung A. Woo, 2009. It is a public art project mapping America's diverse cultural landscape through food, while exploring the impact of globalization on our dinner tables. First "Movable Feast" happened at Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. The goal of Movable Feast is to stimulate the local community's consciousness of the relationship between the natural world of their own backyards and the pursuit of healthy lifestyles by locating native wild edible plants and preparing a meal with them. Additionally, we seek to recognize and appreciate both the cultural uniqueness and commonness represented in each community by comparing and sharing the diversity of recipes based on one of the world's most commonly used ingredients, the potato.

Drawings

March, 2009

"Thaw" Show

By Steven Mygind, Bang Geul Han and Jung A. Woo

Jung brought her Detroit collaborative project to Chicago where she created a life-sized replication of her truck and then included her actual truck bed cover. Jung along with her Detroit project collaborators, Bang Geul Han and Steven Mygind Pedersen created the project documentation and installed the digital animations within the exhibit site. Actual puppets were installed inside the truck bed where viewers participated making their own unique puppet shows.

Nov, 2008

"Storyline Transport: Chicago"
By Jaclyn Jacunski and Jung A. Woo

In this project they intended to create important cross-cultural exchanges and understandings. They wanted to use the East Pilsen Studio and use the space to transform symbolic conversations that express the complexities and concerns of everyday lives in the community.

They understand art to be like "The Whole Ball of Wax", as said by Jerry Salts, the senior art critic of New York Magazine. He continues to state, "Art is an energy source that helps make change possible; it sees things in clusters and constellations rather than rigid system.  Art is a bridge to a new vision and the vision itself, a medium or matrix through which one sees the world, and that grants that pleasure is an important form of knowledge.  Art is not optional; it is necessary."

They believe that art is essential in affecting social justice and change.  The investigations they proposed separates them typical sources of support and places them in locations outside the spaces of museums and art galleries.  They feel it is essential to bring artwork closer to diverse communities and the local residents.  Throughout their practices as artists, they question and seek to expand by making their roles as individuals more "elastic" in the larger communities.  They do this through continual investigation and consideration of what an individual artist's role is in society.  This "Storyline Transport: Chicago" project investigates what art is, what artists do, and the potential use for art to exist beyond traditional systems.  In our cultural, social and ecological landscapes, the answers are complex and the questions are without end.  However, the questions are reason this project was generated.  By developing collaborative and community-based projects they nurture their investigation of the role an artist ad how the practices are integrated into our communities.

April, 2008

"marketPLACE"

By Sara Rabinowitz and Jung A. woo

The first pick-up truck project was called "marketPLACE".  The title marketplace comes from the etymology of the word "forum" taken from the online etymology dictionary* stating it was a "place of assembly in ancient Rome".  Dating back to 1690, a forum was an outdoor location for public discussion to take place.

The "marketPLACE" was a public art performance initiative that connects diverse ethnic communities within the Chicago metropolitan area through food. Woo and her collaborator, Sara Rabinowitz were using food as a way to create connections between different communities.

The project aimed to study and explore issues relating to the complex dimensions of cultural exchange among Chicago ethnic communities. Chicago is one of the best cities to explore diverse ethnicity. Woo's "marketPLACE" team used the converted truck bed as a social space to study and enact issues relating to: the food cycle and the food industry, critical considerations of agriculture and GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and the politics of patents and agricultural globalization. They visited small markets and invited people to have conversations and donate a recipe based on the groceries they shopped for at the market.

The marketplace visits, interviews and interactions with local residents were video documented. They hoped to use these documented events and create a video cookbook which would be later distributed through and Internet website. The video would incorporate the recipes with the residents' cultural background and related stories. They also plan to make a printed cookbook with collected recipes and transcribed stories. Woo and her collaborator wanted to present the documentation at a chosen market using a flat TV screen.

*http://www.etymonline.com/index.php:forum. 1460

Nov, 2008

Storyline Transport: Detroit

Storyline Transport: Detroit is a collaborative public art initiative by Bang Guel Han, Steven Mygind Pedersen and Jung A. Woo.

They created experimental shadow puppet stage sets and performances based on images of the streets and architecture of Detroit's many neighborhoods.  Images and stories of Detorit residents were collected at public locations via hands-on shadow puppet-making workshops, while a converted pick-up truck delivered illuminated shadow puppet shows from neighborhood to neighborhood.  

The first workshop/ event took place in Detroit's historic Eastern Market on Nov. 1st, 2008. With the assistance of the collaborators, market goers had the opportunity to engage and participate in the making and performance of the shadow puppets.  The physical creation of the puppets by hands-on workshops opened opportunities for participants to interact, express thoughts and feelings and exchange cultures with fellow residents in more sensitive and unexpected ways.  The event was free and open to all.

Using their own silhouetted profile combined with an imaginary body, such as a bird, dragon or fairy, these simple shadow puppets created a visual and metaphoric self that is simultaneously flat yet full of possibilities.

The piece intended to offer a catalyst for playful interaction and conversations, which often revealed the complexities and concerns shared by city residents.

The project is funded in part by Wayne State University's Creative Research Grant.