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Photographs + New Video from Shangri-La

March 11, 2006- April 15, 2006

Patty Chang, David Kelley

AnnaKustera

520 W 21st St

Shangri-La is about the idea of a place that exists in both real and mythical incarnations. The project is based on a rural town in Yunnan China, Zhongdian, that has declared itself the true ‘Shangri-La’ (the mythical hamlet of James Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon.) Chang and Kelley traveled to Shangri-La to explore the idea of making a real journey from an imaginary one.

Working with the images at hand in Shangri-La, they became active participants in the town’s ongoing reinvention of itself. Orchestrating the fabrication of sets and props for their journey- a mirrored mountain, a high-altitude oxygen chamber, a karaoke wedding video - Chang and Kelley documented these scripted spaces in both photography and video.

Shangri-La explores the complex relationships between tourism, expectations of authenticity and the myth of the socialist utopia in the age of a dominant capitalist reality as well as Chang’s continued interest in exploring fictionalized depictions of supposed Chinese culture. Known for her earlier performance work in which she tested the limits of her physical self and sometimes her audience, Chang has shifted the focus off of her self, turning it instead into “a catalyst for specific situations”.

Patty Chang’s Shangri-La is part of the Three M Project, a series commissioned and presented by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago where it will be on view from May 20 – August 20, 2006. Chang’s work has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum (NY and Bilbao,Spain); the Yerba Buena Art Center in San Francisco; the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid; the Baltic Art Center in Sweden, and will be included in the upcoming Site Santa Fe Biennial. This will be Patty Chang’s third solo show with the gallery.

David Kelley has photographed and filmed many of Patty Chang’s performances and projects since 1997. Working primarily in a documentary style, Kelley has shown in various group exhibitions around the United States. His commercial work has appeared in publications such as The Source, Mixer and Vibe Magazine.

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

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