Description
Godzilla is an anthology of writings, documentation, and ephemera from Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network, a trailblazing collective based in New York from 1990 to 2001, which was formed to provide a support structure for Asian American artists, writers, and curators to stimulate visibility and critical discourse for their work. Edited by curator Howie Chen, the book gathers archival material from the group’s wide-ranging activities, which included producing exhibitions and forums to social change advocacy surrounding issues of institutional racism, politics of representation, Western imperialism, AIDS crisis, and violence against Asian Americans. Godzilla created a social space for diasporic Asian artists and art professionals, including members Tomie Arai, Karin Higa, Byron Kim, Paul Pfeiffer, Eugenie Tsai, Alice Yang, Lynne Yamamoto, among others.
Founded by artists Ken Chu, Bing Lee and Margo Machida in New York and eventually expanding into an international network, Godzilla’s aim was to “function as a support group interested in social change through art, bringing together art and advocacy” and “to contribute to changing the limited ways Asian Pacific Americans participate and are represented in broad social context—in the artworld and beyond.”
The title is a comprehensive chronicle of Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network, and assembles art projects, critical writing, correspondences, exhibition and meeting documentation, media clippings, and other archival ephemera to render the political and cultural stakes of the time.
Envisioning a lateral and porous network, Godzilla was independently run by successive steering committees that included Diyan Achjadi, Tomie Arai, Todd Ayoung, Monica Chau, Debi-Ray Chaudhuri, Allan deSouza, Skowmon Hastanan, Arlan Huang, Michi Itami, Jenni Kim, Franky Kong, Jeanette Louie, Yong Soon Min, Helen Oji, Sanda Zan Oo, Athena Robles, Carol Sun, Eugenie Tsai, Maureen Wong, Lynne Yamamoto, Rubina Yeh, and Charles Yuen.
8.5 x 11 inches
Paperback
Edition of 2500
November 2021
ISBN: 9781736534625
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Editor: Howie Chen
Designer: Ella
Managing Editor: James Hoff
