A new video by Stan Woodard, “The Afro Asian Action Figure Meets the Juju Stick” is included in "d'Afrique d'Asie", at the Artist Commune at the Cattle Depot Artist Village in Hong Kong. The show opened on June 3, 2006 and runs through June 28. "d'Afrique d'Asie" is curated by Kóan Jeff Baysa, as part of the International Curator-in-Residency Programme. The Artist Commune is located at the Cattle Depot Artist Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
(PRWEB) June 8, 2006 -- Stan Woodard’s video, “The Afro Asian Action Figure Meets the Juju Stick”, examines how a totemic object, The Juju Stick, can transform a representation, The Afro Asian Action Figure, into an actual human. The two works featured in the video started with common toys and each make guesses as to how these things might be interpreted by future civilizations longing for a legendary past.
“The rhythms created by the post-civilization device transforms the prototype for the super chimera into a living, breathing being, beautiful and pleased to be alive.” Imagery in the video implies a Pygmalion type relationship between the bearer of the stick and the figure, the outcome being a living, breathing woman.
For “Juju Stick” a toy drum machine was dismantled and its working parts attached to weathered machined wood. The stick can be imagined in the hands of the nga nga, or tribal spiritualist, exhorting devotees to worship through song and dance. “The Afro Asian Action Figure (prototype)” is the perfect human-dragon chimera; a blending of the image of the powerful black woman and the good fortune of the Chinese Dragon. The dragon head is a mask adopted by the female to display a ferocity that she is not allowed under her own guise. The mask is obviously tied to her, so that no mistake can be made that it is not part of her, but an affectation.
“The pop nature of the elements of these pieces leads to an obvious humor, but the underlying idea of a dark and primitive future is what really drives the work. Past assumptions of what futurism means are being gradually replaced by images of devastation – devastation created by the reckless technologies employed by humans or devastation created by weapons employed to undo what our civilization has wrought.” Stan Woodard
'd'Afrique d'Asie' in Hong Kong is a video exhibition following a 2005 show at Ethan Cohen Fine Arts in New York. Artists featured in the Hong Kong show are: Sanford Biggers, Clifford Owens, Young W. Lee, Ed Wong, Stan Woodard, and Saya Woolfalk.
Woodard’s work has previously been seen in Atlanta, NY, and Birmingham. He is also a creator of experimental music and has appeared at performance spaces and art galleries. He was awarded a 2003-04 KBFUS fellowship, promoting cultural exchange between Belgium and the US.
For more information visit Stan Woodard's website, www.stanwoodard.com , or The Artist Commune's website, www.artist-commune.com.
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