Noah Zhou
Zài ni fāngbiàn de shíhòu (WHEN IT’S CONVENIENT FOR YOU), 2021. Acrylic on canvas with Toyota Camry door. 72 x 72.”
I created Zài ni fāngbiàn de shíhòu (When it's convenient for you) in response to the wave of anti-Asian violence that swept over New York City with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inscribed across layered depictions and artifacts of Chinatown, the repeated phrase “WHEN IT’S CONVENIENT FOR YOU” calls into question society’s view of representation as a pathway to acceptance and belonging.
Beneath the painted surface appear archival print materials: critical texts, comic book images, news clippings, and communication documents circulated in the 1990s by the Godzilla group, a groundbreaking Asian American art collective. The focal point of the painting is a frame from the documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin? showing an autoworker smashing a Toyota—one of the most memorable images from the film.
Zài ni fāngbiàn de shíhòu (WHEN IT’S CONVENIENT FOR YOU), 2021. Acrylic on canvas with Toyota Camry door. 72 x 72.”
Noah Zhou
Zài ni fāngbiàn de shíhòu (WHEN IT’S CONVENIENT FOR YOU), 2021. Acrylic on canvas with Toyota Camry door. 72 x 72.”