Hello Kitty by Agathe Snow

* Simone, I just saw this piece and had to think of you… reading more about her work (see below), it seems she does a very good job at facing the stereotypes head-on. Curious to see the piece described as “expatriates filmed while she asks them them questions regarding their national identity”, which may not be so different from what we did in Beijing, but wondering if it’s the fact that she is coming from outside the Chinese identity and probably dealing with this for multiple expats, multiple cultures (the Benetton question?), that takes the subject matter away from national identity to exactly all the fluff and contrived-ness that it is…

below: copied from a text about Snow’s work at the Art Berlin Contemporary 2008

Agathe Snow
“Chinatown: Every Square has its Round”
Mixed Media Installation, Film – DVD, ca. 1:45 Std./hr.
Größe variabel/Dimensions variable
Ed.: 3 + 3 AP
Courtesy of Peres Projects, Berlin/Los Angeles

In order to realize her latest video, CHINATOWN: Every Square Has its Round, Agathe Snow visited numerous Chinatowns in large U.S. cities, where she went to soup kitchens, purchased fireworks and walked straight into the temptations and stereotypes these parts of town offer. For her project, the artist did not restrict herself to the use of her camera. She develops diverse methods to create her highly narrative work and its many investigative elements. Snow favors overpopulated installations that absorb anything she gets hold of, and she knows very well that she sometimes transgresses the fine line of kitsch and repulsiveness.

Hidden behind her sometimes drastic titles and similarly extreme installations are examinations of intercultural patterns and anomalies. This is also true for CHINATOWN: Every Square Has its Round; where Snow depicts expatriates filmed while she asks them them questions regarding their national identity. While the artist does not take the role of a commentator offering moral or political viewpoints, her rhetorical support takes the form of occasional exaggerations. The work’s radius is intentionally complex and cannot not be completely understood upon first visual inspection. The life patterns and realities depicted in Snow’s video sequences – derived from the daily routine in the age of virtual realities – are too divergent to be totally comprehended. Whereas her non-didactic pieces sometimes lead to seemingly absurd contents, ultimately they are in no way different from life itself: simply complicated. (text by Daniel Kletke)

Born in Corsica in 1976, Agathe Snow lives in New York City, where she participated in the 2008 Whitney Biennale. Future endeavors include her upcoming solo show in Paris’s Jeu de Paume.