April 21, 2021

2021 Creative Fellowship Presentations

Ping Chong and Company announces two presentations by 2020/2021 Creative Fellows in residence with the company: Process memoir 6: thenowlater (HEART), PROPHECY by Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC and Color Theory by Jaime Sunwoo.

Jaime Sunwoo and Johnnie Cruise Mercer are Creative Fellows in residence with Ping Chong and Company for the 2020/2021 season. As part of their Fellowship, PCC has supported the generation of a new work by each artist, which we will present in June 2021.

Nearly 50 years ago, when Ping Chong started making performance work, he created an artistic home by establishing Ping Chong and Company. This artistic home has been a place of mentorship and creativity for many artists over the years; and we deepen this commitment through the Creative Fellowship. The Fellowship engages artists to learn from the body of PCC’s work and methodologies; and receive mentorship and guidance on their career and creative goals. These new projects are generated from research and engagement with the Ping Chong and Company production archive.

Johnnie Cruise Mercer and Jaime Sunwoo have been in creative conversation with each other, and with the company over the course of the Fellowship. Their weekly conversation can be viewed every Friday at 1pm on @pingchongco’s Instagram Live, and each month they share artistic reflections on the @pingchongco Instagram and Facebook pages.

On Tuesday, June 29th, PCC will host a panel event with the Fellows who will discuss their projects and the Fellowship, which will be shared via our website and social media in early July.

We are so excited to be sharing this new work from the Creative Fellows and hope you can join us in June! Save the date and stay tuned for more details about registration.

**Update on May 18, 2021: The online screening for Color Theory has been postponed and will be held at a later date in 2021.**

ABOUT THE PROJECTS and ARTISTS

Process memoir 6: thenowlater (HEART), PROPHECY
A Community Future-Making Workshop

Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC
Sunday, June 27th, 11am – 2pm
Outdoor community event at East 11th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenue

Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC will facilitate a charted quest inspired by the question, “What is the distance of love?” PROPHECY is a celebration of East Village performance history, taking whomever it carries through time, in reflection together, during Pride Weekend!

This outdoor community event will include opportunities to draw, feel, listen, digest, and exhale in a collaboratively facilitated future-making session. The session will conclude with a live performance and participation in the creation of a new music video of “Cloud 9” by The Illustrious Blacks! PROPHECY is the fourth of five events of Process memoir 6: thenowlater (HEART). This event is a part of NYC Open Streets.

Johnnie Cruise Mercer BIO
Johnnie Cruise Mercer is a queer-black think-maker, freelance-performer, educator and social entrepreneur based in New York City. As the Company Director of Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC, his processes/work has been shared and/or hosted by 92Y Harkness Dance Center, Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, Dixon Place, Danspace Project Inc, The Fusebox Festival, Mana Contemporary, The NADA Conference, Abrons Arts Center, and most recently at The Clarice Performing Arts Center's The BlackLight Summit. Johnnie is currently a 2020-2021 Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and New Dance Alliance (through their Black Artists Space to Create Residency curated by Angie Pittman). Follow him (and his company) on Instagram to find out more about his current projects, and works: @jcruisem/@jcm_redprojectnyc

Color Theory
Written and directed by Jaime Sunwoo.
The online screening and conversation with the artists is postponed and will be held at a later date in 2021.

Color Theory is a short film that examines the perception of color throughout the history of Western art, culture, and science as a subtext for how we perceive race. Color Theory critiques how white institutional gatekeepers often use people of color as accessories to justify oppressive systems. The script is sourced from found texts, primarily from David Batchelor’s books Colour and Chromophobia, which explores the fear of color and the glorification of white in Western art.

Jaime Sunwoo BIO
Jaime Sunwoo is a Korean American multidisciplinary artist from Brooklyn, New York working in visual art, theater, film, and public art. Her works connect personal narratives to global histories through surreal storytelling. She studied art at Yale University, and was a fellow for The Laundromat Project for socially engaged art. Her project Specially Processed American Me has received awards from Queens Council on the Arts, Asian Women Giving Circle, NYC Women's Fund, Brooklyn Arts Fund, and The Jim Henson Foundation. She is currently a Ping Chong and Company Creative Fellow. More at jaimesunwoo.com