CHUN HUA CATHERINE DONG + NOOSHIN ROSTAMI
Fri, October 11, 2019
Doors 9:00 Performance 9:30
By Donation suggested $5-20
REUNION
Chun Hua and Nooshin met at at Grace Exhibition Space in 2015, where Chun Hua was doing a performance called “ Art must be Expensive. Shame Shame Shame!” At the end of the performance Chun Hua auctioned her belongings then auctioned herself, when Nooshin bought her for $70. What happened between Chun Hua and Nooshin after the auction? The story continues . . .
Purchase advance tix here: https://withfriends.co/grace_exhibition_space_for_international_performance_art
Four years later, Chun Hua and Nooshin will reunite at Grace Exhibition Space.
With their performative gestures and actions, they will reveal not only their secrets, but also their life stories: their difficult transitions, their struggles, and their determinations of being who they are.
NOOSHIN ROSTAMI
Rostami is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and educator. She grew up in Tehran and immigrated to the United States to pursue her graduate studies and so far has been unable to return to her home country. 

In her work, she examines the impact of displacement as physical, emotional and psychological conditions. Through a metaphorical construction and a game-like problem solving process, she creates abstract spatial landscapes. As a multidisciplinary artist, Rostami works predominantly in performance, installation, and sculpture where a series of abstract forms mutate into an amalgam of objects, constituting personal, social & political narratives.
Rostami has widely exhibited and presented her work in solo and group settings in Austria, Canada, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and the United States. She has participated in residencies both locally and internationally such as BRIC Contemporary Art Program, NARS Foundation, and Tifa working studios.
CHUN HUA CATHERINE DONG
Body is political. Working within the gap between body as image and body as experienced reality, Chun Hua Catherine Dong uses the body—often her own body— as a visual territory in her work and a primary material to activate social commentary on gender, race, and immigration. By encapsulating these global issues in microcosm or magnifying personal predicaments until they become universally visible, she presents the body as an embodiment of dynamic human relations, locating herself at the nexus of author, artwork and audience.
Her artistic practice is based in performance art, photography and video within the contemporary context of global feminism. Her work deals mainly with cultural intersections created by globalization and asks what it means to be a citizen of the world today. She opens dialogues about “deterritorialization” and “disessentialization” in culture and how to transform socio-political landscapes through performative gestures. The gestures in her work are symbolic and metaphoric—at times subversive, meditative, subtle and/or humorous. They express her desire to transform everyday political life into art, as she strives to instill a model for social transformation.
In her earlier works, the body represented an ideological confrontation or political alienation. She developed the idea of representation as a political tool to give visibility to those made invisible by dominant ideologies. In her newer works, she views the body as a bridge connecting East and West, past and present, creating a new version of hybridity and striving to transcend and mend.
Chun Hua Catherine Dong is a Chinese born, Montreal based, visual artist working with performance, photography, and video. She received a BFA from Emily Carr University Art & Design and MFA from Concordia University in Canada. She has performed in multiple international performance art festivals and venues, such as Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival in Chicago, The Great American Performance Festival Art in New York City, 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art in Toronto, Infr’Action in Venice, Dublin Live Art Festival, Experimental Action/ Performance Art in Houston, ENCUENTRO Performance in Santiago, Internationales Festival für Performance in Mannheim, Place des Arts in Montreal, Inverse Performance Art Festival in California, Miami Performance International Festival, Visualeyez Performance Festival in Edmonton, M:ST Performance Art Festival in Calgary.
She has exhibited her works at Quebec City Biennial, The Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne in Paris, MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image in Montreal, Kaunas Biennial, DongGang Museum of Photography in South Korea, Bury Art Museum in Manchester, Museo de la Cancillería in Mexico City, Canadian Museum of Immigration, Art Museum at University of Toronto in Toronto, and so on. Her video work has been screened in Brazil, Mexico, Finland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Colombia, Spain, The Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Greece, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, China, USA, and Canada.
Among many other awards and grants, she is the recipient of Franklin Furnace Award for contemporary avant-garde art in New York in 2014. She is listed in the “10 Artists Who Are Reinventing History” by Canadian Art in 2017 and ‘‘Top Nine Political Art Projects of 2010’’ by Art and Threat magazine.
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GRACE:
Grace, n. - simple elegance or refinement of movement
Grace Period - an extended period granted as a special favor
The Three Graces (Greek Mythology) - charm, grace, and beauty
Opened in 2006, Grace Exhibition Space is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art.
Grace Exhibition Space presents over 30 curated live performance art exhibitions each year, showcasing new work by more than 400 performance artists from across the United States and the world since 2006.
Grace Exhibition Space for International Performance Art Space IRS tax-exempt 501(c)3 status in 2015.
Grace Exhibition Space follows the We Have a Voice Collectives Code of Conduct to Promote Safe(r) Workplaces in the Performing Arts For more information and resources, visit: www.wehavevoice.org
