[Theme music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC, I'm Alison Stewart. For almost as long as artist Arlan Huang has been active in the New York art scene, the legendary emporium Pearl River Mart has been a staple, family-owned Asian American business in downtown Manhattan.

The two are combining forces with a new exhibition in which pieces from Huang's extensive collection are being showcased for the first time at the Pearl River Mart gallery space. It's a terrific outing for those who want to engage in AAPI month and full disclosure, the president of Pearl River Mart is on the WNYC board of trustees.

Arlan Huang is a painter, muralist, glassblower, activist, and small business owner himself. He opened his framing shop Squid Frames in the early '70s. The business became a hub for artists' activity in Chinatown, specifically for the basement workshop collective, which was involved in many of the movements associated with what was a politically active period in New York City in the late '60s and early '70s.

Throughout his life, Huang has collected works from his friends and fellow artists through what he calls art swaps, including the photos of celebrated Asian-American photographer, Corky Lee. Curator Danielle Wu says of Huang's archives, "It is unified by neither aesthetics nor politics.

It is limited in scope and scale, tethered to place and time, fallible memory and feels woefully incomplete, yet this small sliver of an archive tells the story of how and entrusted space for Asian American ideas, culture, and art might not have been a museum or an art gallery, but rather shepherded between people."

Just Between Us: From the Archives of Arlan Huang is on view at Pearl River Mart through August 27th. Joining me now in studio is Arlan Huang. Arlan, thank you for coming in.

Arlan Huang: Well, thank you. Alison, indulge my fanboy for just one minute.

Alison Stewart: Okay.

Arlan Huang: Our shop, my studio have been listening to NYC NPR for 20 years. You're like family to me. It's not like we listen to every single word, right because of the shop there's noise, there's phone calls and everything, but Lakshmi Singh has been on my mind for 20 years.

Alison Stewart: I love that.

Arlan Huang: I just want to say that it's a thrill to be inside the radio.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] Well, thank you, and we're so glad you're inside the radio with us. Also joining us is curator Danielle Wu. Hi, Danielle.

Danielle Wu: Thank you so much for having us.

Alison Stewart: Danielle, in your introduction in the catalog, you say that you suggested the phrase just between us to Arlan as a title. What does this mean, Just between us?

Danielle Wu: I was looking for a way to encapsulate the method that Arlan employs to collect his work. It's very intimate and it's a little bit gossipy. Everyone who trades art with art pays the price. They have to give him the latest gossip on the streets. I was really inspired by this phrase that commonly gets spoken during those exchanges with Arlan, "This is just between us."

I would get in a lot of trouble if I said this to so and so but [laughs] between Arlan it's kept safe and that is the way he treats his friends and his work.

Alison Stewart: Arlan, how did you come on this idea of swapping and exchanging? What do you like about it? What do you get out of it practically? What do you get out of it spiritually?

Arlan Huang: First, let me just say that it's not my show. It's everyone else's show. I just happen to gather all this work for many years. This show actually expresses a way of looking at art, and how one Asian American community, small community, could embrace that art and claim it as their own.

That's why this show is by us and for us. It's about how me came from we. Collecting, I think it all started with my dad saying, "You should save this, it might be important or worth something someday."

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Arlan Huang: That's always in my mind and just asking artists, "Hey, you want to trade?" It's an expression of sharing, it's an expression of validating us as artists to each other.

Alison Stewart: Also kinship and friendship too. Something about you don't swap with someone you don't like.

Arlan Huang: Yes. A lot of artists don't swap.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: How did you think about curating this when you had your opportunity to see Arlan's archive? What was on your mind? What were some of the themes you were looking for? What was the story you were looking to tell?

Danielle Wu: It was a very collaborative process. I have to give a shout-out to my co-curator, Howie Chen, who unfortunately couldn't make it but did a lot of help in the process. [laughs] I as a burgeoning art historian, and as a history of art history was really drawn to names like [unintelligible 00:05:39], and Martin Huang, and these names I had recognized in the classroom, while Arlan balanced out by saying, "You can't be limited by something that the market declares as valuable or what the executive say is valuable.

You have to look at this crate label taken from an oranges crate that I really have been inspired by all these years and has informed my art and is in the marketplace worthless or lacking value, but you need to see it and consider as part of our history."

Alison Stewart: That's a piece of the show, right?

Danielle Wu: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Arlan, when you were thinking about the show and thinking about your collection, was there a piece that you knew you really wanted to be a part of it?

Arlan Huang: No. I wanted everything to be in it.

Alison Stewart: Like a collector, I want it all to be in there. [laughs]

Arlan Huang: Everything is important. It's about relationships, and sharing those relationships.

Alison Stewart: What do you think the viewer gets out of seeing? Are the relationships apparent, I guess is the question? When you look at it, can you tell there are relationships?

Arlan Huang: Yes. Part of it is the way that we decided to hang the show. It's essentially one long line from one corner to the other and it's really one piece. The room is small and oftentimes when we first did it, it was apparent to me that there was this energy and threads running from across the room in relationship to other pieces. I hope that some of that comes across.

Alison Stewart: We are talking about Just Between Us: From the Archives of Arlan Huang. It's at Pearl River Mart at 452 Broadway through August 27th. Arlan Huang's in studio with me as well as curator, Danielle Wu.

For people who don't know the legacy of Pearl River Mart, its importance, how would you describe it?

Arlan Huang: Well, let's see. Basement Workshop was at 54, Elizabeth in 1971 and we had heard that there was this store that was going to open up called Pearl River and they were going to import all items from China. At that point, nothing could come from China.

They opened their store at 22, Catherine 1971 and just happened Basement Workshop moved to 22 Catherine upstairs. We've known Pearl River since then and all its iterations. Ever since the beginning, Mr. and Mrs. Chen, the owners of Pearl River, have been always community-minded. They will always share their spotlight with the community. Pearl River is the only place I want to show.

Alison Stewart: I love that story. You mentioned the Basement Workshop. What was the collective's mission?

Arlan Huang: In the beginning, it was a few people Danny Yung, his sister, Eleanor Yung. They were doing an urban studies report, they came from Columbia and that was their main mission. Also, they had a couple of other small publications.

Now, [laughs] this goes back to a group called Chris Iijima, JoAnne Miyamoto, and Charlie Chin, and they were singing Asian American songs. First time ever I had heard songs about Asian American, and they were performing in anti-war marches.

That's how I got to know them which led to the Asian Coalition, which led to other marches and other meetings. One concert they had was at the Buddhist church in Riverside, and a couple of activists said that we're going to meet afterwards and we're going to talk about publishing a book with the music and lyrics from Chris and JoAnne. and we were going to meet at a place called Basement Workshop.

When the meeting came, it was a real basement in Chinatown. It was overflowing with young Asian Americans. Word got out and there was people outside the door peeking in. From that moment on, Basement Workshop was on the map.

Alison Stewart: Danielle, as you thought about the history, how did the history, all of this history that Arlan's been describing factor into how you curated the show?

Danielle Wu: I came into the show with a different perspective because I did not personally experience all that. The questions I asked myself were, how do we use objects to tell that story through black and white photography? Also not everyone was a photographer at that time, we have to include the protest posters that printmakers were making.

As I laid out the show, I realized that earlier works tended to be depictions of people in action, and then as you go on there's artists now who are more comfortable doing abstract work and painting. That's what occurred to me while I was curating the show.

Alison Stewart: We mentioned photographer Corky Lee who passed away in 2021. When did you first meet Corky?

Arlan Huang: 1971 at the first Chinatown Health Fair.

Alison Stewart: What were your first impressions?

Arlan Huang: [laughs]

Alison Stewart: Just between us.

Arlan Huang: This is just between us. [laughs] This guy comes up to me and he's wearing this tweed jacket, has a pipe in his pocket and he has this mod haircut. I was the opposite; I was a long hair, scraggly. He introduced himself as Corky Lee and if I wanted to help a volunteer for the first Chinatown Health Fair. I said, "Sure."

He showed me a button that he designed for the fair and I said, "Whoa, this guy is all right." At this moment there was no photography. That's how it started and that's it.

Alison Stewart: All right. When you think about Corky Lee's photography, what's unique about it, what's important about it, Danielle?

Danielle Wu: Well, he was photographing Asian American communities with particular focus on Chinatown before anyone considered it worthy of that documentation. He was a really valiant promoter of himself thankfully because often newspapers would not consider his content publishable; protests against police brutality, labor movements.

He was really interested in correcting the narrative in which made Asian Americans invisible and in a way that made them apolitical as well. I adore the photograph that's in the show in particular because not only did he do all of that, but he also paid attention to moments like three girls gossiping in a bathroom which of course encapsulates all the themes of the show and made it obvious that that had to be our headlining image.

Alison Stewart: The name of the show. Oh, that's a great picture. That is a great picture. The name of the show is Just Between Us: From the Archives of Arlan Huang. Arlan Huang has been my guest as well as Danielle Wu. This is at 452 Broadway, it's at the Pearl River Mart. It is up through August 27. Make some time to see the show. Thanks to both of you for coming to the studio.

Arlan Huang: Thank you Alison.

Danielle Wu: Thank you so much.

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It.

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