Tanner Menard looked at the Cantocore project from a distance stating:

I have been reading about Cantocore for a number of days totally obsessed by the complexity of the concepts presented on its site http://cantocore.com/, but it was not until I read the following statement that I was really sold on the idea; ‘Cantocore is the reality of life versus the theory set forth by jurisdictions where people live.’ As an artists who’s personal world view leans towards ontological anarchy, this statement elevates Cantocore from a link on Jon Phillip’s website to the top of the bookmark list on my favorite web browser.

I then waxed poetic about it on my website stating:

When people ask me to explain what exactly Cantocore is, I often dance around the similarities between Guangzhou and San Francisco. Both are at the far extremes from the political centers of power in China and the United States respectively. I also usually talk about the lifestyle of lowered barriers of the 3 P’s: property, privacy, and prices. These combined increase one’s state, or feeling of, personal freedom. However, this concept of the reality of life versus the theory set forth explains exactly how I feel about Cantocore: Just do it! Don’t have a meeting. Don’t make a committee. Don’t whine. Just make your project wherever you are at with what resources you have. Get it off the ground and sort out the pieces as you go.

Please check out the full text of both Tanner’s post and my re-follow-up. Please consider adding your own thoughts as your own review out there on your site, or feel free to blog here or in the comments on this site. We are eager to hear what you think about Cantocore and the latest show on in San Francisco until April 18, Cantocore Free On Board.

We are still recovering from the great Cantocore Free On Board opening at Mission 17 last Friday. JD sent me a few pictures to post up. If you have some, please do post links in the comments or send to me.

We will have some lovely studio shots coming up this week to show off the work. If you are in San Francisco, the show is up for 2 months until April 18. Also, there is an artist talk at Mission 17 from 4 – 6 PM on April 18.

The installation of projects at Mission 17 is nearing completion and we want to send a big announcement across the lands. If you are in San Francisco this Friday, please do come to the opening of Cantocore: Free On Board. Also, please note that this is 1 of 2 shows. The other show at Mission 17 is imPOSSIBLE! 8 Chinese Artists Engage Absurdity, in conjunction with The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.

Both imPOSSIBLE! and Cantocore open on Friday night from 6 until 9 PM. Please come on out! If you’d like to track this on Facebook, be our guest!

Above is the full PDF of the show booklet. The physical copies are running low, so if you want to print this out, please go ahead! All the content is available for your use as long as you link back to this booklet and/or this post.

Inside the booklet are short paragraphs about each work, bios for all participating artists, and then the show statements by myself and Woo Jay. All the text is also in English and Chinese. The show statements are soon to be published along with interviews about the project in Art Map magazine.

I wrote a blog post over on my blog about bamboo structures. Here is an excerpt:

Bamboo scaffolding is a low resolution grid used to produce a higher resolution structure. Living in Guangzhou is inspirational because of the scale of buildings, real imaginations constructed, and accessibility to cheap materials and constant laborers.

And, Lu has been posting some amazing pictures too like:

Bamboooooo

Print Shop

For all you needing images out there, we have just up pushed out images for David Johnson who will be exhibiting a work titled “Made in China” and Guy Overfelt who is getting some magic smoke fabricated.

Guy Overfelt's Untitled (Up in Smoke) Sketch

Please check out the press section to help blog and promote this show!

Deer Fan'g News Reenactment

JD Beltran's Airplane Installation

Justin Hoover's 100 Performances

Cantocore; an international exhibition of contemporary Chinese and U.S. art, opening in Guangzhou and San Francisco, fall 2008.

On Art, War, and Dialogue

Lebbeus Woods, the internationally renowned architect is known to have said that Architecture is War. By this he means that in life art and architecture can be understood as a process of making ideas become actual, upsetting the balance, destroying certitude, and reconfiguring power. In terms of architecture, the tangibility of this concept is palpable. Monuments create history, building express philosophies, and nations judges other nations according to their level of development.

More abstractly however, in the arts, the structures of life that undergo reconfiguration are oftentimes much less evident. In this way artists seek to reassert a voice to alternative viewpoints and philosophies, often times on an intimate scale, or on a microscopic level. Together the simplest gestures or ideas can equate to a movement, a revolution. In this way, Cantocore seeks to foment an exchange of new ideas between China and the United States. Specifically, we are targeting San Francisco, due to its cultural and spatial proximity to China, and Guangzhou, due to its emergence as one of the many new Asian art poles. This series of collaborations known as CANTOCORE Signifies the building of a bridge between two distinct yet intertwined worlds. Together this intercultural dialogical bridge will bring the seeds of abstract and alternative thought to their fullest manifestations.

– Justin Hoover – Thoughts on peace, war, and intercultural dialogue

欢迎来到“硬核广州”

硬核广州，一个关于当代中国和美国艺术的国际性展览，于2008年秋季开幕于广州及旧金山。

关于艺术、战争与对话

Lebbeus Woods这位国际著名建筑家因为曾说过建筑是战争而闻名。因此他认为生活中艺术与建筑可以被理解为一个将理想变为现实的过程，这一过程打破着平衡、破坏着真实并且重新配置着权力。就建筑而言，这一理念的确实性是极其明了的。纪念性建筑物引发着历史来历，房屋建筑传达着哲学态度，并且一个民族因为其发展水平而对另外一些民族具有裁判权。

然而更为抽象地，在艺术方面，遭受重配置的生命结构经常是不明显的。在这种情况下，艺术家们对于可选择的观点及哲学，寻求重新主张一种声音。同时最简单的比画或者思想可以等同于一场运动、一场革命。在这种情况下，“硬核广州”尝试、寻求去促进中国与美国间新兴理念交流的可能。具体地我们将目标选定在旧金山是因为其在文化以及空间上接近中国，同时我们选择广州是因为其渐渐已成为众多亚洲新兴艺术区之一。这一系列被称作是“硬核广州”的合作开展，将意味着是这两个不同但却交织在一起的世界间桥梁的建起。同时，这一不同文化间的对话桥梁将使得抽象理论的或者其他可供选择的想法之种子完满盛开。

– Justin Hoover – 关于和平、战争以及不同文化间对话的思考