![]() The demonstrators have also been protesting against MOCA’s co-chair Johnathan Chu, whom these accuse of contributing to the gentrification of their neighborhood. MOCA has consistently denied supporting the construction of a new jail in Chinatown, though public records show that the money received is tied to the jail expansion program.ĭemonstrators demanding the resignation of MOCA director Nancy Yao Maasbach outside of the museum In return, the funds would finance a permanent location and a performing arts space at 215 Centre Street. The plan would expand the Manhattan Detention Complex near MOCA to a 29-stories tower. The protesters voiced their months-long opposition to the museum’s acceptance of $35 million in city funds as part of a “community give-back” package in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to build four borough-based jails in lieu of the Rikers Island detention complex. ![]() The multi-generational group, ranging from Gen Z activists to septuagenarian community members, called to boycott MOCA for “promoting displacement and racism” against Chinatown residents. Last week, a coalition of activists and community members staged a protest during the museum’s reopening after more than a year of closure. ![]() A protest that followed the press event culminated in shouting matches between the protesters and the museum’s facilities manager, Jeff Reynolds, who attempted to interrupt their speeches. In a press conference outside the museum yesterday, July 18, protesters called for the resignation of the museum’s director Nancy Yao Maasbach, accusing her of making “blatant racist and ageist insults” against seniors from the neighborhood. Ghazaleh Avarzamani’s projects are part of ArtworxTO: Toronto's Year of Public Art 2021 – 2022.Ĭourtesy Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal and Toronto.Tensions between the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) and members of the New York Chinatown community reached a new height this weekend. Avarzamani has been or will be artist-in-residence at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto the Delfina Foundation, London and the Banff Arts Center, Banff and is the 2019 winner of the award for best monographic exhibition from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. Ghazaleh Avarzamani (born 1979 in Tehran) holds an MFA from Central Saint Martins and has presented solo exhibitions at the Koffler Gallery, Toronto Ab-Anbar Gallery, Tehran Asia House, London and Light Gallery, London. These augmented spinning tops carry our current sense of anxiety and imbalance-each new contour or bulge a sign of power games in life and politics, alluding to a world off-kilter and struggling to remain in a steady motion. Broken Circle is a symbolic exploration of how perspective can shift our understanding of reality. Treated in a black finish and laid out on a playing surface, their skewed postures challenge our perceptions of where the objects end and the shadows begin. Using a digital rendering programme, she has altered their forms by including the shapes of their shadows. But these game pieces are misshapen and might not ever spin. Envisioned as a game board, viewers are challenged to spin tops-the player who keeps their top upright the longest wins. ![]() Offering a play on Islamic window screens, which permit views from inside out but not from outside in, this piece stands as an observation deck and a confessional some visitors become observers, some are observed, but they cannot assume both roles at once.īroken Circle combines Avarzamani’s interest in play and power dynamics. Mashrabiya invites us to question the public accessibility of museums like MOCA through modes of open and obscured visibility.
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