Asian Art Museum’s “Rave into the Future: Art in Motion” celebrates the creativity and experience found in dance parties in the West Asian diaspora communities. The exuberant, immersive exhibition emphasizes concepts of joyful connection and community found in the scene.
Expertly curated by Naz Cuguoglu with helpful companion text, it features work by 10 artists of West Asian heritage currently based in Europe and the United States.
“These artists highlight the power of music and dance to create spaces — whether at a public event, or in the solitude of one’s bedroom — where we feel safe to dream of future possibilities,” Cuguoglu notes in her curatorial statement. “Collectively, their work invites visitors to experience contemporary rave culture as a force for healing, unity, and cultural expression.”
Among the work on view is a commission from Arab Persian American Oakland artist Sahar Khoury that includes a multimedia sculpture with a working DJ deck. The work, titled “For Your Eyes Only” by Los Angeles-based Yemeni American artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz, recreates a bedroom scene as both impromptu dance space and installation art.
Elsewhere, check out London-based Lebanese American artist Joe Namy’s “Disguise as Dancefloor,” where 100 square feet of copper tiles record every dance step taken on it.
But among the most surprisingly absorbing is “Puff Out” by mentalKLINIK — Yasemin Baydar and Birol Demir, a Brussels-based artist duo from Istanbul — where robotic vacuum cleaners roam a glitter-covered enclosed floor, drawing in the party residue like Buddhist sand paintings.
Feel the thump of the bass, the colored lights washing over your face and the ping of the electronic music sweeping you away before the exhibition closes on Monday, Jan. 26.