Lee Mingwei, Quartet Project, 2005, Mixed media.

Emily Jacir. Text reads: October 12, 2003, 18:00 hours. me lying on the fountain, staring up at the patch of blue sky above linz, watching a small white airplane go by.

Seher Shah, detail from The Jihad Pop Progression Series, 2006/2007.

Nari Ward, Salvage Research Soul Training, detail, 2007.

Pablo Helguera, Memory Theater, 2004, detail of installation.

Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
718-592-9700
Queens
Generation 1.5
June 10-December 2, 2007

If a person comes to America as an adult, he or she is referred to as a first generation immigrant. Children of immigrants are called second generation. But, if they come when they are in their adolescence, they are called generation 1.5. The 1.5 generation is a group of people who are not children and not yet adults, literate but not yet fully intellectually formed. 1.5 members are old enough to be fluent in their home language and culture, but have less difficulty adjusting to change than their first-generation counterparts. Often characterized by cultural hybridity, 1.5ers navigate various cultural perspectives from the inside, while often feeling un-tethered to any one homeland.

Artists of this generation take part in dexterous manipulations of artistic modes and materials as they engage with diverse personal, social, and intellectual contexts. Along with their freedom of movement, these artists enjoy an ability to walk the line between assimilation and dissent, and are uniquely capable of critiquing their native country as well as their adopted ones. 1.5, on view at the Queens Museum of Art from June 10th-October 14th, 2007, is an exhibition that highlights the work of these artists. The exhibition examines whether artists of the 1.5 generation propose a particular orientation to their work as they are confronted by issues of immigration, cultural dislocation, memory, hybridity, acceptance, and exile in their everyday lives. 1.5 includes stirring and thought-provoking works produced by eight artists—Ellen Harvey, Pablo Helguera, Emily Jacir, Lee Mingwei, Shirin Neshat, Seher Shah, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Nari Ward—including works never before exhibited in New York. Accompanying the exhibition, will be a full slate of programs and events. 1.5 is curated by Queens Museum of Art Executive Director Tom Finkelpearl and Chief Curator Valerie Smith.

In lieu of a printed catalogue, Generation 1.5 features an online component that will grow throughout the time of the exhibition. The material there will serve as the foundation for a catalogue (to be published after the exhibition) with writers, sociologists, anthropologists, filmmakers, other visual artists interested in the issues that attend the 1.5 generation.

Generation 1.5 is an exhibition of the work of eight artists who emigrated in their teenage years. The term “generation 1.5” is used in some communities to describe those who are neither adult immigrants nor American born – the in-between generation of people who moved from one country to another between the ages of 12 and 18. Already undergoing physical and intellectual change during these formative years, 1.5 generation individuals also experience a change in context, in language, in culture. The premise of the exhibition is that the relationship of a 1.5 artist to their adopted country is different than that of a person who immigrated when they were much younger or older. Generation 1.5 is curated by Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art, Tom Finkelpearl and Chief Curator, Valerie Smith. The exhibition will be on view at the museum from June 10 - December 2, 2007. The participating artists are: Ellen Harvey, Pablo Helguera, Emily Jacir, Lee Mingwei, Shirin Neshat, Seher Shah, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Nari Ward.

Some of the issues surrounding the 1.5 generation center on immigration, cultural dislocation and memory, hybridity, acceptance, exile and perhaps a certain type of transgression: critique of their native country or their adopted country, a freedom to be revolutionary or assimilated in both places. However, these issues are not explicitly addressed in all the works. In some cases, they are subtly implied. Generation 1.5 is a term that is contested and defined differently by sociologists, but the curators have taken the meaning that they first heard in Queens – those who came between the ages of 12 and 18. While many of the artists are classic “1.5ers” who came in their teen years, others traveled extensively throughout their lives. With the exception of Ellen Harvey’s, A Whitney for the Whitney at Philip Morris/Altria or I Can Be An American Visionary Too! (2003) all the works are new, reworked or never-before-exhibited in New York.

Ellen Harvey was born in the U.K. and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a teenager. A Whitney for the Whitney at Philip Morris/Altria or I Can Be An American Visionary Too! (2003) combines selected works from the Whitney Museum’s contemporary collection with scaled replicas of the works from the 2001 collection catalog American Visionaries. The images in Harvey’s artist-as-curator endeavor are hand-copied and rebuff traditional art historical practice (they are arranged alphabetically by artist).

Pablo Helguera was born in Mexico City and has lived in Chicago and Barcelona. His piece, Everything in Between (2007), is a newly-commissioned, multi-media installation that functions as an autobiographical novel. Based on a k&uumlaut;nstlerroman-a novel in which the protagonist undergoes an artistic evolution — Helguera's installation depicts a four-year transition (1988-1992) in 20 explanatory chapters and will soon be accompanied by the book The Boy Inside the Letter.

Artist Emily Jacir was born in 1970, raised in Saudi Arabia and attended High School in Rome, Italy. In linz diary (2003), Jacir explores the complexities of surveillance by inserting herself into the frame of one of the Austrian city's multiple webcams. Thus, she asserts herself as a resident of both this space and the global network of images residing in unknown locations.

Lee Mingwei initially emigrated from Taiwan to the Dominican Republic, spent summers in a Chan monastery and attended High School in California. In his piece, Quartet Project (2005/2007), the visitor's movement dictates how much or how little of Antoine’s Dvorak's American String Quartet in F, Op. 96 can be seen or heard as the gallery space transforms into an audio-visual mechanism of desire and frustration.

Shirin Neshat moved from Iran to the United States to attend high school. Her piece, The Last Word (2004), is a DVD projection depicting the interrogation/condemnation of an artist and her threat to the bureaucratic establishment. The Last Word (2004) relates to the Iranian intellectual's struggle for freedom of expression.

Pakistan-born artist Seher Shah moved to London and Brussels and attended High School in New York City. In Shah's The Jihad Pop Progression Series (2006/2007), layered motifs derived from architectural references and religious imagery interact within iconic Islamic spaces such as the interior courtyard. These energized realms are at once utopian and nostalgic.

Nari Ward emigrated from Jamaica to Brooklyn at the age of twelve. His multimedia installation, Salvage Research Soul Training (2007), includes wheelchair puppeteers, an explorative video of movements conceived by dancer/choreographer Ralph Lemon and an oversized parrot puppet capable of reciting a litany of quotes, statistics, official pronouncements, and personalized reflections. Ward's piece explores notions of vulnerability, dependency, anticipation and resilience.