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DREAM SO MUCH 2 LIMITED EDITION ARTISTS BOOK
Recently, a Japanese team took top honors as best of show at the interantional Double Dutch contest held at Harlem's Apollo Theater.
While no Japanese rapper has cornered the music market as of yet, as far as "living" hip hop goes, the Japanese have a global stake.
Be it the urban phenomenon known as double dutch, now inflected by hip hop aesthetics (namely b-boying and breaking), or the contoversial
imitation born of fandom, coined in Japanese as ganguro, what emerged as primarily an afroricancarribean culture has been retransformed
most passionately in Japanese culture.
Dream So Much, the project and exhibition, raises these issues with a focus on the universal culture of writing and graffiti,
what many consider to be the first true essence of a hip hop aesthetic. Though, the landscape has changed. One of the ways that has happened
is through santioned events by the likes of the Barnstormers (Kenji Hirata), who travels for specific grag events, and the beat goes on.
While this tradition is rie with contemporary artists who dabble... who take the lead of Basquiat and Haring and get close,
but not too close the the pioneering, nomadic and often covert actions of the genre's heroes - Case 2, Dondi, Blade, Lee, Futura...
the list goes on - many of Dream So Much's artists find sustenance in walking a new line. Or, at least attempting to walk a new line.
Thanks to Richard and Alexandra Chang, their work holds the walls of the Asian American Arts Center, while they are free to roam and perhaps
keep on bombing.
Franklin Sirmans
Editor in Chief
Art Asia Pacific
DREAM SO MUCH 2 ARTISTS BOOK
32 Pages; Full Color; Glossy;
Dimensions: 9 in. x 9 in.
Art by Dalek, Misk, MatzuMTP, and Kenji Hirata
Forward by Franklin Sirmans
Essays by Co-curators Richard S. Chang & Alexandra Chang.
Limited Edition of 1,000.
$12 (Postage Paid)
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