ELAINE GAN: CONSIDERING RICE

Opening reception: Thursday August 19, 6-8 pm
$10/$5 for members; Part of Creative Cocktail Hour
Exhibition through Sunday, October 17

Hartford, Connecticut – Rice, the sustenance of half the world’s human population, is the focus of Elaine Gan’s exhibition Considering Rice, at Real Art Ways from Thursday, August 19, to Sunday, October 17, 2010. Considering Rice explores the entanglements of storytelling and food economy through a dynamic map of one of the world’s most significant agricultural sites. Gan is one of six selectees for Step Up 2009, an open call for emerging artists in New England, New Jersey, and New York.

The opening reception is Thursday, August 19 from 6-8 pm as part of Real Art Ways’ Creative Cocktail Hour. Admission to the reception is $10/$5 for members. Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street in Hartford's Parkville neighborhood. For more information, contact 860.232.1006 or realartways.org.

Considering Rice focuses on the Philippines’ spectacular Ifugao Rice Terraces, a 2,000-year-old farming system of mountain terraces where rice is harvested to this day. Paradoxically, the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation of this living, sustainable economy endangers the very practices that created this agricultural system.

By layering stunning images of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, Gan creates an image map of rice production that merges historical, political, and day-to-day narratives. Considering Rice asks, do we endanger the present in our attempts to preserve the past? Whose story ultimately gets to be told?

About the Artist
Elaine Gan produces site-driven installations, performative interventions, and multimedia narratives as different means of mapping territory, collectivity, and subjectivity. She has earned numerous grants and fellowships and her projects have been exhibited at art venues throughout New York City and the United States, as well as in Canada and China. Gan, who is from New York and Manila, participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and holds a B.A. from Wellesley College.

Step Up 2009 was made possible through the support of our members, the Alexander A. Goldfarb Memorial Trust, Howard and Sandy Fromson, Greater Hartford Arts’ Council United Arts Campaign, Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Travelers Foundation, Robinson and Nancy Grover, Gary E. West, National Endowment for the Arts, Lincoln Financial Group, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Nimoy Foundation, the National Performance Network, and the Ensworth Charitable Foundation.

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