Editor and Curator of
Shifting the Angle of Shine: an Anthology of Artists and Collectives in the Sinosphere, 2013 - 2023
Our inaugural publication spans a decade of resilient artists and collectives in, around, and about China and the greater Sinosphere. Composed of essays, images, conversations, and projects, Shifting the Angle of Shine documents innovative tactics of artists and collectives as they weave relationships of mutuality and solidarity to thrive through the cracks.
Shifting the Angle of Shine explores how artists experiment with practices ranging from idiosyncratic business models to counterfeit and mimicry as tools for cultural change, from DIY collectives searching for stability to artists developing new ways to dance around the restrictive pressures of a capitalistic mainstream, and much more. In bringing these artists together to speak and lay compiled in this book, we ask ourselves: what kind of spaces are necessary to incubate productive conversations in an art world prone to creating destabilizing conditions?
Spanning our art nonprofit's decade of existence, a lot of our work has been documented in fragmented ways over the internet, on social media accounts, and in the memories of those there in person. Through materializing this project, we hope to not only shine light on the work of some artists and collectives we admire, but also to archive their stories, processes, and methodologies that should be passed on.
What is the Sinosphere?
We understand that "Chinese" is a continuously contested category with vast geographical, linguistic, ethnic, religious, class, and ideological differences under this unwieldy umbrella. We all have varied and complex personal and familial migration stories, and we believe that in making room multiplicity the most fruitful conversations and connections are made. By using the term “Sinosphere” we hope to spark discussions that are border and nation state critical.
爻 yáo collaborative
preserved vision fountain, 2020. video and poem inside soft sculpture