Yong Soon Min Allan deSouza Curator: Monika Kin Gagnon Will **** for Peace
Will **** for Peace, Yong Soon Min et Allan deSouza, 2003. OBORO.
Vernissage on Saturday, May 17, at 5 pm
“Will **** for Peace is a collaborative performance and installation by Los Angeles-based artists Yong Soon Min and Allan deSouza. Originally performed in 2002, it resonates in the shadow of the tragedies of September 11 and the ensuing hyper-militarization that now bombards us from the south, touching on war, nationalism, militarization, and complex relations between art activism and peace. Will **** for Peace revisits newlywed Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s week-long Peace Bed-In that began on May 26, 1969 at Montréal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, which mobilized their celebrity to publicize peace and love at a critical socio-political moment during the Vietnam War. Min and deSouza’s recreation of John and Yoko’s remarkably simple gesture in support of peace has a poignant resonance in the present climate; it is tempered by twenty-first century sobriety evident in their refashioned title that spins the social desperation of ‘will work for food.’ – Monika Kin Gagnon
Further readings:
Will **** for Peace, Yong Soon Min et Allan deSouza, 2003. OBORO.
Yong Soon Min is a multi-media artist. Min’s works have been exhibited in North America, Europe and Asia. She was curator for the 4th Gwangju Biennale, 2002, in South Korea. She is currently Chair of the Department of Studio Art at the University of California, Irvine.
Allan deSouza is represented by Talwar Gallery in New York. He has exhibited extensively in Britain and the United States, as well as different venues in Europe and Asia. He is the author of The Sikhs in Britain, and his fiction and critical writings have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.
Monika Kin Gagnon is a Montréal writer, critic, teacher and curator. She is the author of Other Conundrums: Race, Culture and Canadian Art (Arsenal/Artspeak/KAG, 2000) and 13 Conversations About Art and Cultural Race Politics, co-authored with Toronto video artist, Richard Fung (Artextes Editions, 2002). She teaches Communication Studies at Concordia University.