PLEASE NOTE: Guests requested to wear well-fitting masks to attend.
Join us for the in-person premiere of the acclaimed Asian futures, without Asians, a multimedia presentation by Astria Suparak, who asks: “What does it mean when so many white filmmakers envision futures inflected by Asian culture, but devoid of actual Asian people?”
Part critical analysis, part reflective essay, and sprinkled throughout with humor, justified anger, and informative morsels, this illustrated lecture examines nearly 60 years of American science fiction cinema through the lens of Asian appropriation and whitewashing. This research project examines how Asian cultures have long been conflated with one other, often creating a fungible “Asianness” in futuristic sci-fi. The work uses a wide interpretation of “Asian” to reflect current and historical geopolitical trends and self-definitions, inclusive of East, Southeast, South, West, and Central Asia, as well as North Africa and Oceania. The performance lecture is interspersed with selected images and clips from dozens of futuristic movies and television shows, as Suparak delivers anecdotes, trivia, and historical documents (including photographs, advertisements, and cultural artifacts) from the histories of film, art, architecture, design, fashion, food, and martial arts. Suparak discusses the implications of not only borrowing heavily from Asian cultures, but decontextualizing and misrepresenting them, while excluding Asian contributors.
This project was first developed and evolved over a series of performances made for Zoom. The in-person launch of Asian futures, without Asians marks the culmination of Suparak’s years of artistic research.
Thursday, June 1st
Doors open at 7:30; Performance begins at 8
2220 Arts and Archives
2220 Beverly Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90057