smARTpower, an initiative of the USA Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by The Bronx Museum of the Arts, sends 15 U.S. artists abroad to work with local artists and young people around the world to create in situ art projects. Selected artists design and implement programs within a 45 day period in cooperation with local arts organizations in China, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kosovo, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Venezuela.

smARTpower artists are strongly encouraged to create a tangible legacy of the work, to remain in country, through a variety of visual arts media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, video, installation, photo-based work, public art, and interdisciplinary projects.Projects emphasize participatory work and address a full range of relevant subjects including, but not limited to, women’s empowerment, the environment, health, education, and civic engagement.

Arthub Asia is happy to host the artist Duke Riley in Shanghai, February/April 2012 to carry on his project.

This project is in collaboration with Elizabeth Grady (Bronx Museum) and Arthub Team (Chen Xingyu, Zoe Zhang Bing) and the American Consulate in Shanghai.

The project (to be developed)
For smARTpower, Duke Riley will restage in Shanghai the legendary swimming race that determined the sequential order in which the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac appear; all of the zodiac animals will be represented by live animals (minus the Dragon), which will be ferried separately across the Huangpu River in boats decorated according to each animal and paddled by different groups within the community. According to Riley, “No calendars will be reset at the finish line nor will any closer understanding of that mythical day be realized. The only realization will be a brief moment of divine absurdity between two shores.” The project is also intended to highlight the porous nature of waterfront communities, and the tolerance and cultural exchange that transient maritime cultures generally foster.

About the Artist

Since receiving his MFA from Pratt Institute in 2006, Duke Riley has actively exhibited and engaged in performance work. Recent collaborative performances include a St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Havana, Cuba—which was so warmly embraced by the residents of that city that it is now an annual event—and a large-scale, Wagnerian enactment of a sea battle waged in the reflecting pool of Corona Park for the Queens Museum, with the aid of well over a hundred participants. His collaborations have included building sets and costumes from found materials, which range from things found in nature, such as winter-killed marine grasses, to things that might commonly be found at a local hardware store, such as broom heads, which he used to make the plumes of makeshift gladiator helmets. Related works can be found in a number of private and museum collections.