PITTSFIELD, MASS.- ChimaTEK: Beta Launch, an installation of innovative projections by Saya Woolfalk, is on view now through August 9, 2015, at the Berkshire Museum, as part of the summer-long exhibition Immortal Present: Art and East Asia.

Saya Woolfalk, a New York-based artist who was born in Japan, uses science fiction and fantasy to re-imagine the world in multiple dimensions. She uses video, photography, collage, animation, drawing, and other techniques to create the enigmatic, moving images made of light projected in vivid colors on the walls of the Museum’s Crane Room. Woolfalk’s vividly colored projections portray the Empathics, a fictional group of women that embody a transformative fictional company called ChimaTEK.

“The Empathics blend racial and ethnic identities as they transform, taking on characteristics of humans and plants,” says Woolfalk. “Through their non-profit research society, the Institute of Empathy, the Empathics study the condition of their hybridity and actively manipulate their genetic information.”

Woolfalk has exhibited at PS1/MoMA; Deitch Projects; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; the Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Frist Center for the Visual Arts; The Yerba Buena Center; the Newark Museum; Third Streaming; MCA San Diego; MoCA Taipei; and Performa 09; the Montclair Art Museum; the Chrysler Museum of Art; Smack Mellon; and the Asian Art Museum, CA. She holds an MFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Immortal Present: Art and East Asia
Illuminating the rich and diverse legacy of East Asian art, from its origins in the distant past to compelling current works, the new exhibition Immortal Present: Art and East Asia will be on view through September 7, 2015. Immortal Present features the Berkshire Museum’s historic collection of Asian art and showcases works by a number of significant and influential contemporary artists with ties to Asia, including Saya Woolfalk. Immortal Present is sponsored in part by the Taipei Cultural Center, the Japan Foundation, and Berkshire Magazine.

Curated by Maria Mingalone, Berkshire Museum’s director of interpretation, and Gary Smith, a noted Asian art scholar, Immortal Present exposes visitors to a wide array of art from China, Japan, Korea, and additional works from Southeast Asia. Visitors interpret and connect the historical material to important contemporary artistic achievements. Themes explored in the exhibition include ideas from Asia’s main spiritual traditions, humanity’s relationship with nature, fantastic animals and mythic dragons, as well as pleasures in everyday life, from love and family to beauty and entertainment.

The Berkshire Museum’s expansive collection of art from East Asia is the cornerstone of Immortal Present, and includes scroll paintings, sculptures, screens, prints, netsuke, and other fine and decorative art objects. These splendid objects range in date from circa 600 B.C.E. onwards, with many from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Captivating images depicting life in China and Japan, set against the beauty of the landscape, as well as functional objects of exquisite craftsmanship, demonstrate the distinctive techniques utilized in East Asian art.

“We were happy to discover the depth and range of Asian objects in the Berkshire Museum’s collection,” says Smith. “Most of these objects have not been exhibited before, and certainly not in the broad contextual presentation with which we show them. I was constantly delighted to discover in the Museum’s collection works that are of high quality and of historic importance. This is a great resource, far from a major metropolitan center, that we hope will excite and educate our visitors.”

The exhibition includes works by nearly 20 contemporary artists, from sculptors and mixed media artists to painters and photographers. Each artist incorporates their cultural background into their current work in unique ways, some producing work that clearly shows the resonance of their own origins while others are working in new and utterly original forms. In addition to Woolfalk’s projections, the show features pieces by Liu Bolin, Long-Bin Chen, Gonkar Gyatso, Hong Hao, Wu Jian’an, Cha Jong-Rye, Hong Lei, Yoshitomo Nara, Nobuhito Nishigawara, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Hideyo Okamura, Hu Renyi, Taca Sui, Huang Yan, and Fu Xiaotong.

“The exhibition’s aim is to ignite curiosity about and increase understanding of the distinctive aesthetics, concepts, and traditions embodied by diverse Asian cultures,” says Mingalone. “We embrace that diversity, because it has the power to expand and change one’s viewpoint on life. We hope it is fascinating for visitors who will have the opportunity to appreciate such compelling and varied examples of Asian art.”

“In a world that is increasingly interconnected, with globalization a reality and artistic traditions rapidly evolving in contemporary art, Immortal Present offers an insightful look at how East Asian art of yesterday and today is meaningful and relevant to international audiences,” says Van Shields, Berkshire Museum’s executive director. “We are proud to bring an exhibition of this range and impact to the community.”