The Worlds of Bernice Bing
On Sunday September 28, as part of Asian Contemporary Art Week, Asia Society, Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA), Asian Art Museum, and Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) presented "The Worlds of Bernice Bing", a documentary short film illuminating the life and times of visionary artist, Bingo—fine artist, community activist, lesbian, and Asian American. Through archival footage and interviews with scholars, colleagues, and friends, the film documents the importance of Bing’s place in American art history. From her art studio in North Beach, to her groundbreaking community work to her later life in rural northern California, Bing chose not to follow the trends of the day and created art on her own terms. The film tells the powerful and inspirational story of a unique American icon of the arts, finally giving Bingo the attention she so well deserves.
The screening at the Asian Art Museum was followed by an audience Q&A featuring award-winning director Madeleine Lim and two of the film’s collaborators: Jennifer Banta Yoshida, and Nancy Hom, leading to a captivating panel discussion with a diverse panel of voices from Bing’s communities. Featured panelists included: interdisciplinary artist and California College of Arts Fine Arts professor, Kim Anno; writer, solo performer, and doctoral student at Stanford University's Theater and Performance Studies program, Thao Nguyen; and self-taught internationally recognized artist, Malik Seneferu. The Q&A was moderated by Tina Takemoto, multidisciplinary artist, associate professor of Visual Studies at California College of the Arts, and board president of the Queer Cultural Center; who examined how artists are still pressured to compartmentalize their identities in order to maintain relevance in contemporary art.
View the trailer here:
To purchase the DVD click HERE
To view Bernice Bing’s art please click HERE