Artists Space

Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022

Book Launch
April 28, 2023, 8pm

Please join us for a book launch for Chang Yuchen’s Coral Dictionary Vol.1: 2019-2022, co-hosted by Gong Press. Yuchen and friends will present a performative lecture on her feral literacy, while demonstrating how to read, use, and dance with this newly-published dictionary.

A color image of a hand holding up a small blue book, in front of a solid grey background. White handwritten text is overlayed the image, the text reads: "Coral Dictionary Vol.1: 2019-2022 / book launch and performance / April 28 2023 / 8pm / Artists Space / 11 Cortlandt Alley / Published by Gong Press.
Chang Yuchen, Coral Dictionary Vol.1: 2019-2022, 2022. Published by Gong Press, 2023. [A color image of a hand holding up a small blue book, in front of a solid grey background. White handwritten text is overlayed the image, the text reads: "Coral Dictionary Vol.1: 2019-2022 / book launch and performance / April 28 2023 / 8pm / Artists Space / 11 Cortlandt Alley / Published by Gong Press.]

Including 216 words that Chang Yuchen has translated with fragments of coral bodies, Coral Dictionary Vol.1: 2019-2022 is a tool book custom designed for one person’s need in her ongoing endeavor of making a language.

The Coral Dictionary is a poetic investigation into the nature of language and the language of nature.
– Alvin Li

The dictionary includes an exquisite introduction by Alvin Li, and is published by Gong Press in two versions:

  • Paperback, folded jacket, open edition, 6.5 x 13 x 3 cm, $58
  • Accordion, clamshell box, signed and numbered edition of 30, 8.6 x 14.7 x 6.6 cm, $500

Coral Dictionary Vol.1, 2019-2022 will be available at the event, and can be purchased online through Gong Press's website.

A row of small folded blue books are displayed on a black table. A piece of white coral is also placed in the middle of the table.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A row of small folded blue books are displayed on a black table. A piece of white coral is also placed in the middle of the table.]
A figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, facing an audeince and reading into a microphone. On the wall behind the presenter are two projected screens. The right screen depicts a table with a notebook, someone
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, facing an audeince and reading into a microphone. On the wall behind the presenter are two projected screens. The right screen depicts a table with a notebook, someone's hand turning the pages of the notebook, and an array of dried coral pieces. On the left screen is an image of the ocean and sky.]
In a basement space, an audience watches as a figure sitting behind a white table reads into a microphone. On the back wall behind the figure are two projected videos featuring a notebook, pieces of coral, and an image of the ocean.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [In a basement space, an audience watches as a figure sitting behind a white table reads into a microphone. On the back wall behind the figure are two projected videos featuring a notebook, pieces of coral, and an image of the ocean.]
figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, facing an audience. On the wall behind the presenter is a projected video that depicts an array of dried coral pieces on the left, and next to them a hand places a paper with illustrations of coral and a chart with notes underneath.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, facing an audience. On the wall behind the presenter is a projected video that depicts an array of dried coral pieces on the left, and next to them a hand places a paper with illustrations of coral and a chart with notes underneath.]
A figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, they are reading from a small book in front of them. Projectors on either side of the table face the back wall. An audience watches the reader from the right side of the image.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, they are reading from a small book in front of them. Projectors on either side of the table face the back wall. An audience watches the reader from the right side of the image.]
A figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, with speakers and projectors on either side of them. The figure leans over and opens a small book.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A figure in a blue dress sits behind a white table, with speakers and projectors on either side of them. The figure leans over and opens a small book.]
A figure in a blue dress stands behind a white table, they slowly unfold a book as another figure in the audience stands and reaches over to read off of the paper.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A figure in a blue dress stands behind a white table, they slowly unfold a book as another figure in the audience stands and reaches over to read off of the paper.]
A figure
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A figure's hands are shown, standing at the edge of a white table, unfolding a small book as another figure on the other side of the table holds part of the book and reads off of it.]
A figure in a blue dress stands behind a white table, and holds the end of a small folded up book. On the other side of the table, a row of people sitting on wooden chairs hold different sections of the book and read off of it.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A figure in a blue dress stands behind a white table, and holds the end of a small folded up book. On the other side of the table, a row of people sitting on wooden chairs hold different sections of the book and read off of it.]
A row of figures sitting in wooden chairs hold various sections of a folded up book, reading off different parts.
Chang Yuchen: Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022. Performance documentation, April 28, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Lane Lang. [A row of figures sitting in wooden chairs hold various sections of a folded up book, reading off different parts.]

Chang Yuchen works in an interdisciplinary manner—writing as weaving, drawing as translation, teaching as hospitality, commerce as social experiment (see Use Value) and publishing as a dandelion spreading its seeds. By constantly entering and exiting each medium, she strolls against the category of things, the labor division among people. Yuchen was a recipient of Kahn | Mason SIP Fellowship, Poetry Project Curatorial Fellowship, Huayu Youth Award Grand Jury Prize, Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation Grant and Luminarts Fellowship. She has shown/performed her work at UCCA Dune, Power Station of Art, Para Site, Taikwun Contemporary, Artists Space, Abrons Art Center and more. She was an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, Museum of Art and Design, NARS x Governors Island, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Textile Arts Center. Yuchen has written for publications including Heichi Magazine, Press and Fold, Art in Print, Randian, and she lectures/teaches at Yale University, University of the Arts, Center for Book Arts, Printed Matter, among others.

Gong Press is a publishing project by Qianfan Gu (based in New York), St. Jiu (based in Beijing), and Yuki He (based in New York). We produce art publications in collaboration with our artist friends. The project is named after the weapon “GONG (弓, bow)”: like a bow without an arrow, Gong Press exists in a state of quiet and dormant potency, ready to be activated through creative collaborations.

Catherine Lie is an Indonesian interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator who works between New York and Jakarta. Interested in the notion of commoning, Catherine works with scores, videos, texts and their translations to explore alternative histories. She collaborates with more-than-human ghosts in everyday life: stuffed animals that play with kinship and identity formation, a broken phone that broadcasts the invisible story of global copper mining operations, and sourdough starter as a pedagogical lens for design and ecology. Catherine’s work has been exhibited at the Wiesner Gallery, Sakiya, Museum MACAN, and A.I.R Gallery.

Juntao Lin a fiction writer and a Ph.D student in Comparative Literature at NYU. His research interests include German Romanticism and Idealism, Marxist aesthetics, modern Chinese literature.

Ming Lin is an archivist and researcher—one half of Shanzhai Lyric, currently in office at Canal Street Research Association.

Alex Tatarsky makes performances somewhere in between dance, theater, comedy and deluded rant — sometimes with songs. They are one half of poetic research duo Shanzhai Lyric.

Bryan DelValle's practice is focused on painting, drawing and collage that deals with intimate, autobiographical subject matter. He lives and works in Valley Stream, NY and holds a BFA in painting from School of Visual Arts.

Artists Space Venue is generously supported by Lonti Ebers, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Allan Schwartzman, David Zwirner, and an anonymous contributor.