The Greenway Conservancy recently announced two new public art installations that celebrate the Year of the Dragon which will be installed at Auntie Kay and Uncle Frank Chin Park. The installations are Year of the Dragon by Ponnapa Prakkamakul and Far Away, From Home by Zhidong Zhang. Sampan sat down with the two artists to talk about their work, which is part of the annual Chinese Zodiac series. 

Sampan: What does it mean to you to have your installation on The Greenway?
Ponnapa Prakkamakul:  I used to be a play volunteer at The Greenway from 2016 through 2018. At that time, they called it “play ambassador.” My job was to play with kids at Chin Park exactly where the sculptures are, because at that time, I think they put the storage containers over there at that location. And then when they open the container, they put the toys out. During one of the volunteer shifts, they asked me to do a temporary mockup of their hopscotch using tape. When I did that, everyone liked it, and then it became a printed version, and that’s kind of the starting point of that. I think that’s probably my first public art in a public space, and that’s where things started to happen. Having the installation at The Greenway at the exact spot again really means a lot to me.

Sampan: How much did the planned location of the piece at Auntie Kay and Uncle Frank Chin Park in Chinatown influence your work?

Ponnapa Prakkamakul: Before I did the proposal, I did research on what dragon means in Chinese culture. Some people in the South of China believe that dragons are the protector of the water. And it’s actually not like a fire dragon, it’s a water dragon. I think the serpentine curve form that kind of reminds me that’s the body of the dragon that was hidden in the greenway. As it used to be water, too, before the land reclamation in this area, like the Beach Street at Chinatown Gate used to be next to the beach. I think that kind of resembled the dragon, and that’s where the inspiration came from. I have the dragon actually heading towards Chinatown Gate, and also because the park kind of has a play element, like the play cube, and then the water mist in the planter area. I was thinking about connecting it so that kids can feel the whole space as a play space connecting the play cube and then the water mist with the installation.

Sampan: What do you hope people will take away from your installation?
Ponnapa Prakkamakul: This installation has a lot of people’s contributions in it, actually, like 90 Chinatown residents of our generation helped me imagine it.  I feel that they feel that this belongs to everyone. And I hope when they see this, they realize when they come together, they can achieve something as big as a dragon.

Sampan: When will the tail be installed at the park?
Ponnapa Prakkamakul: Hopefully in June. We don’t have snow this year, but at first, we were planning in June just to make sure there’s no snow.

Sampan: The piece will be on display for a year?
Ponnapa Prakkamakul:  Until February 2025, I think until the next Chinese New Year, or around that time.

The title of this installation takes inspiration from the essay “Far Away, From Home: The Comma Between” written by filmmaker and writer Trinh T. Minh-ha. The installation explores Trinh’s musings on otherness as both “a site of return” and “a site of change”. Far Away, From Home delves into these questions and expands on notions of home, immigration, identity politics, diaspora, and queerness in the public sphere.

Sampan: What does it mean to you to have your Far Away, From Home installation on the greenway?
Zhidong Zhang: I think it definitely means a lot. It’s my first public art piece, and I think it’ll be my first time having the work seen by a wider audience. That’s not only limited to the gallery spaces, museum spaces, that’s what I usually exhibit my work at. I’m very excited to see how the public responds to the piece in various ways. I think that’s even more exciting to see how they respond than actually having the piece in the space–in a way.

Sampan: How long did it take you to create this piece?
Zhidong Zhang: Almost a year in the making. The process started about last year this time, and then just went through some iterations. But the fabrication process or the making process was, for the past six months, intense making.

Sampan: What materials did you use in your piece?
Zhidong Zhang: The cabinet will be constructed with just wood, like a marine grade plywood. Again, to reference, it’s a furniture piece. Or, like, the material that you will find when you have your own domestic furniture. So that’s what I’m thinking. The furniture legs, the four legs will be 3d printed. But it’s mostly wood construction.

Sampan: What do you hope people will take away from your installation?
Zhidong Zhang: I hope people will just enjoy it. That’s the first and foremost my experience with public art. I want people to first enjoy it, and then you’ll be very inviting, and then if you look closer, there’ll be more surprises, and then it’s like, open up like an onion. I guess the more time that you spend with the piece, the more kind of discovery you’ll find. I think that’s something I would hope that any sort of audience with different backgrounds will come to the piece and then leave with some sort of rewards or some sort of thinking.

Sampan: What research did you do for this project?
Zhidong Zhang: I feel like there are a lot of things that I’ve been thinking about. First, this is thinking about the idea of home, how the definition of the home changes with time, especially for immigrants of color like myself. I’ve been in the US since 2018. I guess this was a piece for me, first and foremost to define what an idea of home means to me. It’s just thinking about bringing a little piece of home to the public that’s very literal, literally like a shape of cabinet that’s from my childhood home. But also talking about collectively what we can envision a home if it’s in the public sphere, and also talking about some sort of identity politics and talking about queerness specifically, that’s something I’m really interested in, to how people perceive, or again, define queerness in a public sphere as well. Specifically, I think the pieces kind of have that kind of queer readings. I’m hoping to have embedded all those different kinds of meanings into the piece so different people can come and take away whatever they want. And also talking about diaspora experiences as well, that’s reflected in the etchings that I bought. One of the etching panels will be featuring the scenes from this traditional Chinese flower and birds’ paintings. It was originally used by the ruling class back in China and then kind of popularized because the reproduction of the prints was available. And then, every household had one of those kinds of decorative paintings. The meaning shifted with the production or the availability of that kind of imagery, and then recreated that into a laser etching, which added a little kind of contemporary touch with the technologies.

Sampan: When you applied for this, since this is your first public art piece, were you surprised that you got it?
Zhidong Zhang: Yeah, I think Audrey Lopez, she’s the director of the public art department, throughout the whole process, she definitely gave me the creative freedom to come up with the initial proposal and also allow me room to go through different iterations. I think that’s really supportive. Adam Torres, the public art project manager, is also so supportive throughout this process. So definitely a shout out to Greenway. They’re being so supportive in terms of it’s my first experience working with public art, but they do provide substantial support, so it’s very smooth.

Sampan: It will be on display for a year?
Zhidong Zhang: Yeah, maybe until March 2025.

Zhidong expressed,

‘It has been almost six years since I moved to the United States from China by myself. I am considered a resident alien by the government–not because I’m a green card holder but because I pass the USCIS “substantial presence” test which is based on the total days that I’m physically present in the US. The act of passing this test is to reenact the disappearance of oneself by virtue of absence from one’s home country. It’s easy to get mixed up reorienting oneself to a new place when the precarity of displacement is enmeshed in the promises of unknowing the old self and becoming a new self. I remember the sheer desire I had early on to hide my accent and repel any foreignness that inhabited my body. For immigrants of color and queer individuals, I’ve always wondered if the assimilation and categorization of ourselves becomes unavoidable, and even necessary, as a means to reclaim, reinvent, and rebuild from the preexisting identities that we are bound to lose…