Song Dong: Dad and Mom, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well; Feb 26-Jun 12 February 26, 2011

Born in Beijing in 1966, Song Dong has been a significant figure in the development of Chinese conceptual art since the early 1990s. His practice incorporates performance, photography, projection, video, and installation, paying careful attention to the social and spiritual implications of China's rapid development.

The centerpiece of Song Dong: Dad and Mom, Don't Worry About Us, We Are All Well is the much heralded, large-scale installation Waste Not comprised of over 10,000 items ranging from pots and basins to blankets, bottle caps, toothpaste tubes, and stuffed animals collected by the artist's mother over the course of more than five decades, beginning with the Cultural Revolution. This installation has been shown at prestigious venues across Asia, Europe and North America since it was first created in 2005, but YBCA will be the first venue to present Waste Not in a larger context of Song Dong's work focusing on his family.

The exhibition includes a selection of the artist's videos, photographs and a newly commissioned work. Collectively, the works create a longitudinal portrait of Song Dong's use of art as a way to form closer bonds with his mother and father, as well as his siblings, wife and daughter, and to express the power of the family as a social unit. Other works in the exhibition include Touching My Father (1997), Father and Son in the Ancestral Temple (1998), Listening to My Family Talking about How I Was Born (2001) and Chinese Medicine Healing Story (2011), all of which use photo-based imagery to consider familial identity, individuality and the legacy of ancestors.

Public Programs:

Daily Lives
Feb 26-June 12
FREE
701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Room for Big Ideas

Inspired by artist Song Dong's investigations of family, consumerism, and the small meditative moments that punctuate an ordinary life, Daily Lives is a group exhibition borne out of a collaboration between YBCA's Community Engagement Department and the Chinese Culture Center. Featuring the mixed media work of local Asian-American artists, Daily Lives examines the reality and occasional sublimity of everyday existence through a variety of sensory experiences. Recent works by Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, Cynthia Tom, Jennifer Ewing, Liu Xianbiao, Imin Yeh, and Stella Zhang will be on display, and an array of workshops and demonstrations will be free and open to the public throughout the run of Song Dong's exhibition Dad and Mom, Don't Worry About Us, We Are All Well.

Song Dong Roundtable
Sat, Feb 26, 2-4pm
FREE w/ gallery admission
701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Large Conference Room

A roundtable discussion focusing on the work of Song Dong, how it relates to that of other artists who emerged in the 1990s; the impact it has had on the younger generation of Chinese artists; and how it has been received both inside and outside of China. Participants include: Song Dong and renowned contemporary Chinese art scholars Britta Erickson, Wu Hung, and Zheng Shengtian.

Break on Through to the Other Side...
Fri, Apr 15, 7pm
FREE w/ gallery admission
701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room

Screening with introduction by the curator, Malcolm Ferris
"Break on Through to the Other Side...,"is a video compilation of Chinese performance art from the 1990s through the present by artists Ji Sheng Lu, Tian Yibin, Sun Ping, He Yunchang, The Gao Brothers, Wang Chuyu, Xia Jianguo, Zhang Minjie, and others. The artists were invited to submit existing or new video works which, in the spirit of The Doors' iconic song, address the concept of overcoming boundaries or limitations and breaking down barriers. Curator Malcolm Ferris is Research and Academic Development Director at Plymouth College of Art in Devon, England.

Public Info:
415-978-2787 or www.ybca.org

Gallery Admission: $7 regular; $5 students, seniors & teachers/Free for YBCA Members

Admission to Daily Lives: FREE

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