Antonius-Tín Bui

The Protectors stand proudly and alert, submerged in a field of vessels, instruments, motifs, patterns, and symbols sourced from the permanent collection. Even though many of the containers depicted are broken, or on the verge of crumbling, The Protectors insist on preserving the fragments because that’s all they’ve ever known. Working together, they attempt to build an archive that is free from the bureaucratic, linguistic, cultural, and psychological grips of colonialism.

Embedded into the topography of their skins are contemporary tattoos and markings that explore notions of sex, pleasure, spirituality, ornamentalism, queer theory, and home, amongst many others. However, the limits of their flesh are always in flux since they are constantly time traveling, going wherever fragments must be recovered.

Video walk through of the piece available here.

Installation at the Maryland Chinese Culture and Community Service Center for Băng Qua Nước: Across Land, Across Water, a group exhibition curated by Ivy Vuong.

2 hour durational performance for the opening

performance for “New Explorations in Mediascapes and Memoryscapes” at Bannister Gallery in Providence, RI

Excerpt of the performance available here

Installation for Băng Qua Nước: Across Land, Across Water at Creatives Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT

performance for the closing reception of Băng Qua Nước: Across Land, Across Water in New Haven, CT

LOCATION
Alief SPARK Park & Nature Center
Beechnut & Dairy View
Houston, TX 77072

Alief Art House, featuring exhibitions curated by Artist Antonius-Tín Bui, is a transformed shipping container that highlights the cultural richness of Alief communities through curated exhibitions, murals, and happenings. Located on the grounds of the Alief Community Garden at the Alief SPARK Park and Nature Center, Alief Art House was founded by Artist Matt Manalo through the DiverseWorks Project Freeway Fellowship.

Bui’s curatorial programming for Alief Art House features a diverse range of artists and media, including: Thomas Tran’s Crocodile Garden mural and exhibition entitled Glorified Doodles 2020 (May 2020); performance of Picturesque Terrors and exhibition entitled Kumquat Gallery by Kumquat (June 2020); Intimate Restlessness featuring work by Artist Micaela Cadungog (July 2020); In the Placeless by Anh Hà Bùi (August 2020); The Black Out by Kentra Gilbert (October 2020); a group exhibition entitled Tanya Scott, Janine Pastran, Stefa Witt, and Moe Penders: A Softness Not Yet Felt (December 2020); Metamorfosis featuring work by Tania Breton (February/March 2021); and most recently Dark Nights to Brighter Days by Sam Night (April/May 2021).

Bui will continue to organize programs with Manalo at Alief Art House through 2021. Their collaboration underscores the many revolutionary shapes public art can take – featuring performances, murals, installations, and exhibitions in nontraditional locales.

~LEARN MORE ABOUT AAH HERE~

What does survival mean?

Who do we create for and why?

Visionary Futures builds upon Curator Ashley DeHoyos’ past projects Collective Presence and Bayou City Be All and highlights how queer, non-binary communities are at the forefront of cultural change. For Visionary Futures, DeHoyos has asked these artists to engage in a series of conversations on speculative futures leading to the creation of new works that consider and further develop ideas of queer, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC futurism, with several prompts that begin to unravel notions of survival, considering how and who do we create for and why?

Visionary Futures provides an opportunity for each artist to consider new paradigms for cultural exchange and the legacies that they seek to leave behind at the intersections of art, technology, and spirituality.

Antonius-Tín Bui has orchestrated a series of guided meditations in collaboration with Theresa-Xuan Bui, Khushboo Gulati, Brinda Iyer, Kunj, jas lin, Xoài Pham, Michelle Phuong Ting, Kyoko Takenaka, and Mimi Zhu, with graphics by Jason Ting. Collective Ideation will be posted on the Diversworks website and disseminated weekly in the organization’s e-newsletter.

~EXPERIENCE THE MEDITATIONS HERE~

These forms are known as mums, a nod to the Texas, high-school homecoming tradition, popularized in the 1970s and 1980s, that students wear large and elaborate pins, featuring faux chrysanthemums, ribbons, and trinkets. Growing up in Texas, Antonius is familiar with the tradition.

These mums are a celebration of Antonius’ history and background. Here, they have incorporated candles, Vietnamese altar pieces, incense, and votive paper, which is traditionally burned as an offering to one's ancestors. Through these embellishments, Antonius asserts their identity as a member of the Vietnamese American community, which has a large presence in Texas.