There Is Nothing To Divide Us If We Do Not Exist
Badlands Unlimited, CFGNY, Gidra, Renée Green, Sara Knox Hunter and Guadalupe Rosales
June 2 - July 26

Chen’s is pleased to present the inaugural group exhibition , T​ here Is Nothing To Divide Us If We Do Not Exist​,featuring Badlands Unlimited, CFGNY, Gidra, Renée Green, Sara Knox Hunter and Guadalupe Rosales.
The artists and organizations in this exhibition engage publishing and archiving in expanded forms to remap
modes of cultural representation and narratives of presence. Through a variety of methods, the material practices
involved strive to circulate the complexities that frame individual and communal visibility and agency.
The name of the exhibition has been titled after T​ here is nothing to divide us if we do not exist (​ 2016), a book of
poetry by Sara Knox Hunter.
Chen’s would like to acknowledge and thank The Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center of the Japanese American
National Museum, The Hirasaki National Resource Center of the Japanese American National Museum, Mika
Tajima, and Motel for their assistance with this exhibition.
This exhibition is organized by Alex Ito and Howie Chen.

Badlands Unlimited (​ founded 2010)​ ​publishes e-books, paper books, and artist works in digital and print forms.
Historical distinctions between books, files, and artworks are dissolving rapidly. We publish and produce newworks by artists and writers that embody the spirit of this emerging dissolution.
CFGNY ​(founded 2016) is an ongoing dialogue between Tin Nguyen and Daniel Chew on the intersection offashion, race, identity and sexuality. CFGNY continually returns to the term "vaguely Asian": an understanding ofrace as a specific cultural experience combined with what it feels like to be perceived as Asian. CFGNY does notwish to represent what it means to be Asian in the singular; instead, it encourages the visualization of thecountless ways one is able to be Asian.
Gidra (​ 1969-1974) was an Asian American monthly newspaper-magazine that ran from 1969-1974. The
publication discussed various topics such as Asian American representation, art, social justice, activism andcoalition with other community groups. The group was known for their anti-war and anti-capitalist stance thatinspired global movements towards decolonization.
Renée Green​ is an artist, writer, and filmmaker. Green’s most recent project, Pacing, was a two-year engagementwith the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Cambridge, Mass. She’s the author of Other Planes of There: SelectedWritings (Duke University Press, 2014), and a Professor at the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology,
School of Architecture &amp; Planning.
Free Agent Media (FAM)​ (founded 1994) is a dream company and will fulfill the wishes of those it represents.
We will revive the attitude of gift exchange between the company and those represented by the company. We
operate in the interstices of late capitalism and are under no delusion that there ever exist free gifts. Those
represented must sign an agreement acknowledging that crucial premise. While FAM is a dream company it
nonetheless is a producer of things. The things it produces are media products, such as our inaugural product,Camino Road. FAM gives shape to dreams. It will publish books which may ordinarily have difficulty being placed
but which we believe can be linked to a market waiting to be tapped. We do not believe in the dictum that to sell
one must appeal to the lowest common denominator. Markets and audiences are made and there are a variety ofthem. The sizes of these markets are unknown and not possible to assess from market surveys. We gamble on
the circulating moods of the times, while minimizing the possibility for losses. Thus we produce paperback books,books on computer disks, CD-ROMs, and videos 1 . We will expand or contract when necessary. We are aninternationally based company and when possible produce multiple language editions and when timely weproduce tie-in merchandise.” [Excerpt from Renée Green’s 1995 statement, “Free Agent Media,” in Other Planesof There: Selected Writings (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014), 94]
Sara Knox Hunter​ is a writer, musician, and artist based in Queens, NY. She is the founder and director ofSummer Forum for Inquiry + Exchange. Her collection of sci-fi poetry, T​ here is nothing to divide us if we do notexist​, (Dominica) was published in 2016
Guadalupe Rosales​ is an artist and archivist based in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA from The School of The Art
Institute Of Chicago. Rosales is the founder of Veteranas and Rucas and Map Pointz, both digital archives foundon Instagram. She has exhibited at The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn NY), Vincent Price Art Museum (Los AngelesCA) and The Philbrook Museum (Tulsa OK). She has lectured at various institutions such as UCLA, Vincent Price
Art Museum, The Getty, The New Museum, New York University and The Graduate Center in New York. In 2016,
Rosales took over The New Yorker’s social media for a week and was one of the top rated takeovers of the year.
Her role as Artist in Residence taking over LACMA’s Instagram feed was featured in the LA Times, Artsy andArtforum. Rosales has an ongoing project developing an archive of photographs, objects and ephemera related tothe 90’s Los Angeles Latinx party crew scene and Chicanx youth culture. By preserving artifacts andmemorabilia, Rosales' work deconstructs and reframes marginalized histories, offering platforms of conversation
and agency of self-representation.