www.agentofchaos.com presents guest artist - Harley Spiller aka Inspector Collector

A Taste of MoCA: Culture, Cuisine and American Dreams
MoCA Announces Food-Themed 2004 Season
November 5, 2003


Chinatown, New York - MoCA hosts a year of exhibits, programs and events focusing on what everyone loves most - Food! MoCA warms up the grill with Los Angeles-based artist, Cindy Suriyani's exhibit General Lee's Banquet Room. Then, planned programs including a community-wide recipe contest, walking tours and film screenings of Cheuk Kwan's Chinese Restaurants will satisfy any visitor hungry for more than a little appetizer.

MoCA's 2004 season recontextualizes the role of food, restaurants and dining in the Chinese diaspora, examining its significance in defining identity, merging cultures, and creating communities. Throughout the year, MoCA will introduce artists, historians and collectors that explore different facets of Chinese restaurants, such as Harley Spiller, who has collected over 10,000 different Chinese restaurant menus from 80 foreign countries. The season will culminate in a presentation of The Chinese Restaurant Project, an interpretive and interactive space where MoCA asks visitors to identify their own connections to Chinese eateries through an examination of memories, recipes, and artifacts.

About General Lee's Banquet Room:

With subdued profundity and dream-like imagery, Cindy Suriyani's General Lee's Banquet Room illustrates the story of Los Angeles Chinatown's oldest restaurant, the now defunct 100-year old Man Jen Low, also known as General Lee's. General Lee's incorporates both the tangible and not so tangible artifacts of the restaurant to explore, dissect, and delve into the history of L.A. Chinatown, the Lee family (owners of the restaurant), the Asian American civil rights movement and transculturalism. An artists-talk with Ms. Suriyani and the Lee family is scheduled for February 2004. General Lee's opens January 27, 2004 and will run through July 2004 in MoCA's second gallery.

MoCA is chartered by the New York State Department of Education and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Support for General Lee's Banquet Room is provided by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Additional funding provided by Museum Benefactors Walter & Marcella Dear, Elizabeth Hirsch, Helen & Calvin Lang, Lois Leung, Louis Hency & Lucia Ng, Jadin Wong, and Peter, Emilie, Melissa, and Carina Wong.

Visit MoCA online at http://www.moca-nyc.org.

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