RUB – Now Wave and Graphic Activism
Flux Factory Major Exhibition
November 23 – December 15

Opening Reception: November 23, from 7:30 – 12am
Open Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 1 – 6pm
CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

FULL SCHEDULE BELOW

RUB is an independent publication
an exhibition at Flux Factory
an invitation to collaborate, learn and build community

RUB moves between two axes: the DIY strategies of the NOW-WAVE, and GRAPHIC ACTIVISM. The NOW-WAVE houses artists who produce counterculture that challenges the boundaries of Nationhood, and address issues that cross cultural boundaries. This movement wrestles with the notion of collective vs individual identities, and uses a praxis of art and activism that moves beyond the white box context. The second axis is experimentation and reinvention through GRAPHIC ACTIVISM. The RUB Exhibition centers pieces with a special sensitivity for printed matter and publishing as practice, that makes visible under-represented and under-appreciated identities. Themes that are included are: the experience of POC and QPOC; therapeutic art practices that deal with abuse, depression, and trauma; using graphic languages in the processes of resistance; and always returning to the personal as political. RUB features a selection of multidisciplinary practitioners and artists who use these two axes as raw materials.

RUB originated as an independent publication, zine and channel. RUB has traveled around the world, into different exhibitions spaces such as the “Freedom School” at SPRING/BREAK Art Show— during Armory arts week in NYC, Singapore art bookfair, AKI Gallery in Taipei, Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Queer zine Fest, LA Printed Matter, and more recently AKTA community center in Tokyo and Kyoto Art Center. RUB’s mission is creative engagement with local experimental communities of color in an era where the United States is ruled by a paranoiac, and a dehumanizing nexus has come in his wake. We witness a culture infected with commodification, consumerism, violence and the rupture of identity. A culture of manufactured fear and legally institutionalized discriminations. RUB is a free space, an incubator in a society shaped by brutality where uncensored voices can express nonconformity, opposition and provocation to the socio-political panorama. Within the space of RUB, we can escape the imposed boundaries through a de-colonial, DIY and activist practice.

NOW WAVE and GRAPHIC ACTIVISM Movement Members List
Aarati Akkapeddi, Amelia Bande, Mitsuko Brooks, Eun Hyea Choi, Jevijoe Vitug, Kaitlin Chan (Queer Reads Library), Pei Ling Ho, Toby Millman, Martha Naranjo Sandoval, Maureen Catbagan, Yin Ming Wong, Andre Ramos-Woodard, Yanbo Li, XVK, Eleni Theodora Zaharopoulos + more artist contributors coming

FULL PROGRAM

NOVEMBER 23
OPENING RECEPTION with performances
7:30pm to 12am, Performances by Pei Ling Ho, Amelia Bande and Echo the Golden Ghost

In this participatory performance Pei Ling Ho explores themes of “East/West” and “self/other” within the contemporary context of global feminism. Often use her own body as a vehicle to activate social issues on the impact of exotic and local culture, gender identity awareness, the legitimacy of parents under the social system, and the emotional blackmail in a family.

Amelia Bande is a writer working in performance, theater and film. Her plays Chueca and Partir y Renunciar were staged in Santiago, Chile. She is part of the Gel Film Series (2012- present) and she co-founded Publishing Puppies, a press for visual work, poetry and fiction (2011-present). She has recently shown work, solo and collaborative, at Artists Space, The Poetry Project, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Dixon Place, BAM, The Shandaken Project, and many more.

Family pictures are interesting because their amateur quality makes them as intentional as they are accidental. In this workshop we will revise works of art that use family pictures in different ways and experiment with family pictures. Found family pictures will be provided but we encourage to bring your own as well.

DECEMBER 12
FLUX THURSDAY
6pm, RELEASE OF RUB CATALOG BOOK WITH ALL THE CONTRIBUTORS

Flux Thursday is Flux Factory’s longest running program. It is a potluck, so please bring something to eat or drink to share. 

7:30, DIY PUBLISHING PANEL With the release of the artists books “A Landscape of Ghosts” by J
Triangular in collaboration with Kyoto Art Center, “365 songs of sex” by Chen An An, Kaitlin Chan (Queer Reads Library) will be part of this conversation in Hong Kong and will talk about her new project in Taipei. 

9pm – 12am, KARAOKE NIGHT 

DECEMBER 13
7 – 9pm, SCREENING

Two Women” by Juanita Imran and Pharah Diaz.

“Their contribution is an intergenerational project between grandmother and granddaughter that features images of powerful women and poems authored by Mohammed and Diaz about empowerment, pain, and aging” – Alexandra Juhasz

Plus a viewing of a series of short films made by Latin American, trans and cis Women, and gender non-confirming filmmakers, who utilize punk and other experimental contemporary aesthetics.

RUB Curatorial team
Cayla Lockwood:  artist, curator and graphic designer based in NYC. She is currently an artist in residence at Flux Factory and a curatorial member of Little Berlin (Gallery) in Philadelphia. Teaches workshops internationally in printmaking and bookbinding.

Chen An-An:  Sculptor, installation artist and curator based in Taiwan. Her works revolve around queer feelings of love, desire, and loss within the complex relationship between self-identity and social system.

J Triangular:  Colombia Born-Taiwan based. Founder of RUB zine. Independent curator, queer poet, DIY video artist and photographer. Making art projects that addresses themes as counterculture and music, queer community identity, self- empowerment and camcorder activism.

Lulu Meng: New York-based artist born in Taipei, Taiwan. Her multidisciplinary practice, including installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, video, and curatorial projects investigates the formation and fluctuation of individual identity in a society.

Terrill Warrenburg:  Artist and independent curator living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is non-representational and rooted in self-discovery and meditative practice. Interested in art’s ability to foster empathy between individuals, Terrill’s curatorial interests include collaborative partnerships, cross-cultural dialog, and alternative media.

RUB is thanks to the support of grants from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The Andy Warhol Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the international circulation grant from the Colombia Ministry of Culture, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York (TECO) and from individual donors.