Jo-ey Tang. Photo by Gina Osterloh

Asian “Traditions” Examined at New KADIST Gallery Exhibit

San Francisco’s Mission District gallery, KADIST, will stage the “Frequencies of Tradition” exhibit from April 1 through July 16, bringing together a group of internationally acclaimed artists, many presented in the U.S. for the first time.

The exhibition centers on tradition as a space of contestation.

Tradition is a significant part of daily lives in Asia, connecting generations and reverberating as a living archive of cultures across time. Tradition also retains and upholds patriarchy, authoritarianism, and obsolete customs.

Through collective memories, spirituality, archival imagination, technological engagements, and alternative modes of empowerment, the works in the exhibition–predominantly video installations and photography–upend conventional notions of tradition and examine how regional modernization entangles with the emergence of tradition and where the violence of social conventions, nationalism, and the impact of such histories on the everyday manifest.

Together, the works allow for a critical reflection on modernization in East Asia and where an expansion of our understanding of the regional modern takes place.

“Frequencies of Tradition exemplifies our ethos as an international hub of knowledge, that generates multi-year and multi-venue collaborations and projects of social relevance, supporting artists whose artworks are primarily drawn from the KADIST Collection of over 1600 contemporary artworks,” says Jo-ey Tang, KADIST San Francisco’s newly appointed Director.