New work "(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park" and "Intimate / Distant" Part of "Brooklyn Utopias: 2020” Exhibition at Old Stone House

My new work “Intimate / Distant” and “De-gentrifying my Parents Block” that I produced during the pandemic while at International Center of Photography (ICP) is being showcased along with selections from “(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park” as part of a group exhibition entitled “Brooklyn Utopias: 2020” at the historical Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

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Degentrifying My Parents‘ Block (2020)

More about the pieces in the show - Click HERE

The show opened on August 20th and will be up in the space until October 2020.

You can also physically visit the show “social distance” style at the beautiful historical landmark in Park Slope. Gallery hours by appointment; please call 718-768-3195 Friday-Sunday, Noon – 3 pm.

More info Click HERE

Photos from COVID-19 “New Normal” Opening on August 20th, 2020

About the exhibition:

Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 addresses Brooklyn’s past, present and future by inviting artists to consider differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn. Participating artists also explore how Brooklyn has continued to change over the past decade, and if/how it can serve as a model for urban and American living on a national scale as we navigate a global pandemic in a time of unprecedented social, political and environmental turmoil. Brooklyn Utopias also implies the possibilities (or limitations) of art in creating a better world. In 2020, in the midst of a tense national election season, COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd and others have brought heightened attention and urgency to the need to address Brooklyn’s persistent socioeconomic and racial inequities. Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 responds to our current moment with artworks that implicitly or explicitly suggest that a Brooklyn Utopia, especially in the COVID era, must involve not only a safe, healthy and affordable physical environment that nurtures the borough’s diverse communities and landmarks. It also demands a greater collective spirit and the rejection of “unhealthy levels of independence,” in the words of artist Jody Wood, who has created a virtual Independence Treatment Center to mitigate this condition. Diane Exavier’s Every Body Remains a Miracle installation and book-making workshop asks, “How do we care for our neighbors when the amenities of new construction seduce tenants into exceedingly more private life?” (and when those with the means may choose to abandon Brooklyn for suburban and rural alternatives?) #BrooklynUtopias2020

New Photographs from "(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park" Series receives En Foco Award and Exhibition

As a part of the 2020 En Foco Fellowship my photographs of my parents and the impact of gentrification from my "(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park" series were supposed to be exhibited in a group show. Due to COVID-19 the show was online.

The photographs were also featured on the cover of En Foco’s Nueva Luz Magazine, CLICK HERE to see the issue.

Here are some of the photos that are part of the exhibition below

I'm also excited to announce that one of my photographs of my mother is on the cover of their magazine "Nueva Luz" 

Description of the work: 

Betty Yu follows a joint story of the relationship between her parents as they do everyday errands within the backdrop of the working-class immigrant neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The neighborhood is facing and actively confronting accelerated displacement and gentrification, which makes itself so visible by the giant new structures right up against her family’s home. The En Foco 2020 Photography Fellowship Exhibition: Your Reflection, This Memory features the works of Akshay Bhoan, Johnnie Chatman, Odette Chavez-Mayo, Luis Diaz, Roberta Dorsett & Clarissa B. Aponte (Collaborators), Jon Henry, Antonio Johnson, Rahul Majumdar, Josefina Moran, and Betty Yu, and is curated by Julia Mata. The exhibition was originally scheduled to be held at BronxArtSpace, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was transitioned to an online exhibition.

The En Foco Fellowship photographers in each of their distinct ways, meticulously use their powers of observation, commentary, and response to create images that document a variety of realities. The fellows create both staged and spontaneous shots of interpersonal relationships, city and home landscapes, social and political dynamics, and their collaborative processes with each other. Through each of their bodies of work they amplify concrete realities as well as staged interpretations that display the underbelly of the social structures we live in. The work is a range of styles and outlooks, from different vantage points of the contemporary photography world. We have the straightforward report-style approach of an investigator seeking out the truth right up next to a more contemplative and surreal project. It’s a sample of the field of new works by some very strong and very different voices.

International Center of Photography exhibition: "Intimate/ Distant" an interactive multimedia project showcased

In June 2020, I finished my ICP year long New Media Narratives Certification program. Congrats to my fellow classmates! Check out "How the Light Gets In" featuring our work on ICP's website.

Go to ICP's website to check out the exhibition my work: https://oyc2020.icp.org/Betty-Yu

A direct link to “Intimate/Distant” an interactive website, CLICK HERE

Sharing some images from the website here:

"Intimate / Distant" is an interactive web-based documentary project that tells my family’s immigrant stories spanning multiple generations through video, photographs, mixed media collages and archival materials. 

The interactive experience features short video vignettes and images that provide a portal into my family’s journey beginning with the current COVID-19 global pandemic going back to the early days of Chinese Exclusion in 1882. These portals interweave my narration, poetic imagery, photography, archives, collages, verite style scenes and traditional interviews. During the Fall of 2019, I started to photograph my parents and the impact that gentrification has had on their daily life and future in New York City’s Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn. Then COVID-19 changed everything. Instead of photographing my parents in our family house, I have had to rely on FaceTime calls and my mom’s cell phone images to stay connected to them. 

During this time of quarantine, turning inward also meant facing my own discomfort with turning the lens on myself. Specifically the pain and rage I’ve been feeling about the ongoing corona-related anti-Asian violence. This project especially during this pandemic, has allowed me to explore my internal and external life as a Chinese American who holds multiple generations of trauma and resilience in the U.S. These immersive stories provide a glimpse into understanding the experiences of Chinese-Americans that are intimately tied to the U.S. immigration narrative.

Stay safe and #BlackLivesMatter #Justice4GeorgeFloyd

Betty Yu's "Working Stories" Part of Year-Long Public Art Project at the High Line

IN/WITH CHELSEA

Through a series of artworks, In/With Chelsea inserts local memory and advocacy within the streetscapes of North Chelsea surrounding the Spur, the newest section of the High Line.

The street signs will be on view from October 2, 2019 – September 1, 2020.

About the Project:

Artists Lizania Cruz, Shannon Finnegan, Alicia Grullon, and Betty Yu were commissioned to work with local service providers and businesses to engage in storytelling workshops, interviews, and conversations with local residents and workers. As you walk through Northern Chelsea, you’ll find moments of these interactions and neighborhood histories on street signs; signage produced and installed by the New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program and Sign Shop.

After six months of engagement with partners including Hudson Guild, The Center, Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York, National Domestic Worker Alliance, Esposito Meat Market, GMHC, Fountain House Gallery, and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, each artist created a series of street signs to make the historical and social landscape of long-time residents visible to the broader public.

These works add historical context and contemporary voices to inform the narrative of our changing urban landscape. Each artist worked with a different population: senior residents, LGBTQ+ populations, neighbors with disabilities, garment workers, and union laborers.

About Betty Yu’s Working Stories Public Street Sign Project, Part of In/With Chelsea:

Betty Yu looked to capture the labor stories of everyday people—past and present; union and non-union; informal and formal; immigrant, undocumented, and US born. She interviewed a broad cross section of workers—people in retail, labor organizing, the service industry, non-profits, and domestic work. Yu also hosted a story circle with longtime union organizers and members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. For Yu, working people are the backbone of this neighborhood, and of the city. “The stories go beyond the parameters of today’s Chelsea,” says Yu. “These are stories from workers who recount the neighborhood before the millionaires, luxury towers, big box stores, and expensive art took over.” In Chelsea, the mix of lower and higher income residents, and of workers and employers, is in constant motion and interaction with one another. The stories Yu collected, and the signs she created, speak of this history, agitation, and change.

For more her project: https://www.thehighline.org/in-with-chelsea-betty-yu/

Click HERE to view the brochure

"In/visible Labor in Chinatown" and "The Garment Worker" exhibited in Punctures Show at Squeaky Wheel Art Film and Media Art Center

Betty Yu's dedicated and expansive work in Punctures is anchored by a sewing machine and interactive scree titled The Garment Worker. This work focuses on the daily life of a garment worker and hardships she/he encounters working in a sweatshop. Visitors can touch the screen to reveal different stories and facts about the garment industry. Anchored by stories from the artist's family, Yu's work expands to both honor the histories of migrant labor in the nation and is an incisive investigation of the ways racial capitalism is integral to the continuing operation of the United States. “The Garment Worker” is contextualized by workers from another project by Betty Yu, “In/visible Labor in Chinatown”, which includes documents, textiles, and a rotary phone, with which visitors are encouraged to interact. Both works speak directly to how three generations of Yu's family live under the effects of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

This exhibition was part of Punctures: Textiles in Digital and Material Time. Consisting of three exhibitions and public programs that weave into each other, Punctures features artists who are invested in the intersections and history of textile practices, media art, and critical and liberatory politics, including trans fashion and domesticity; gendered and immigrant labor under global racial capitalism; Gelede women’s commemoration, protest and power as represented in textile work; speculative future-casting through Oglala Lakota knowledge systems, and more. The exhibition features installations by Betty Yu, Cecilia Vicuña, Charlie Best, Eniola Dawodu, Kite, and Sabrina Gschwandtner, performances by Charlie Best, Jodi Lynn Maracle, and Kite, and screenings of work by Jodie Mack, Pat Ferrero, Sabrina Gschwandtner, and Wang Bing.

On view from January 10–February 7, 2020 @ Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center, 617 Main Street Buffalo NY. Free and open to the public.

Read about “Invisible Labor in Chinatown”

Betty's "In/visible Labor in Chinatown" exhibited at Bronx Community College's Hall of Fame

As part of Diversity in Public Art: Empowering Community Voices at Bronx Community Voices at Bronx Community College Betty Yu exhibited her new multimedia installation “"In/visible Labor in Chinatown" .It was an art and community event celebrating the Historic First Hall of Fame in the United States. The works were selected by jury and will be on display and open to the public from September 21st through October 25th, 2019. The painting, sculpture, films, digital art, and various mixed media works featured seek to reexamine the Hall of Fame for Great Americans and ultimately address the importance of cultural diversity in public monuments.

Read more about “In/visible Labor in Chinatown”

“In/visible Labor in Chinatown” at Bronx Hall of Fame Gallery