ISSUE NO. 4: Double Exposure | Tina Chow and Yoko Ono
“...that activism can be the journey rather than the arrival;...”
ARCHIVIST’S NOTE
“Talk and write in a way that encourages the mutual exchange of ideas and acts like a midwife to people birthing their own ideas.” —Grace Lee Boggs (June 27, 1915– October 5, 2015)
Dear readers,
January lumbered past, February evaporated; volatile, and now, it’s March. The Ides. I hope that everyone is doing o.k. amidst all of the turmoil and heartbreak and hate :( I reached two big milestones this month that I won’t reveal yet, not because I like keeping secrets, but because I have no idea what will happen now. I’m excited to share with you as things take shape. I’ve been finding strength in Grace Lee Boggs’ words and have often come back to this: “...that activism can be the journey rather than the arrival.”
I have run out of brainspace and heart capacity to keep up with social media’s algorithm and its lack of compassion and honesty. I decided to stop actively fundraising via Substack subscriptions. This does not mean I am not moving forward. On the contrary, I’ve been propelled and am compelled. We need this archive now more than yesterday. I am working on alternative ways of fundraising, acquiring support through grants, prizes, etcetera. While I’m navigating this, I am continuing my work at Bạn Bè (catering, special art projects with like-minded organizations and people, and kids’ cooking classes), writing, and have taken on freelance work—including at a midwifery :)
I intend to keep this newsletter going. I was tending to the physical space in Brooklyn, so pardon my absence online. I had doubled up on trailblazers featured here in November and December 2024. We might have all had a prescient ache that January and February 2025 would bring challenges. But I am back. Thank you to everyone who believes in this project, and has empowered me and cleared a path for this archive to flourish through your pledge/paid subscription. Through moments of work, rest, reflection, love, and resistance, I will keep you updated here.
For this edition of the newsletter, I am going back to my roots and keeping things more visual. This post is available to everyone—free and paid subscribers. If you are able to support this work, I would be so grateful for your monthly or annual chip in. Happy Spring!
♡
Doris
ARCHIVE NO. 6 & 7, Vol. 1: TINA CHOW (April 18, 1950–January 24, 1992) AND YOKO ONO オノ・ヨーコ (b. February 18, 1933)
Andy Warhol “sketched” through his Big Shot and SX-70 instant cameras. They were studies—placeholders—for the eventual large lithographs and silkscreens he would produce. Two of his subjects are a couple of the most fascinating creative luminaries in our time: Tina Chow and Yoko Ono. In his lifelong quest to achieve speed and efficiency in his art, Andy became the machine, and in doing so, he illuminated the humanity in his sitting subjects. These polaroids of Tina and Yoko are some of my favorite images of Asian American women documented in the obscured oeuvre of Asian American women in art. There is power. There is beauty. There is grace. There is intelligence. There is will. There is peace.
Tina Chow, born Bettina Louise Lutz, was an American artist, jewelry designer, fashion model, and AIDS activist. She was an influential fashion icon and muse to Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, David Seidner, Antonio Lopez, and Issey Miyake. She was the “darling of the downtown art moguls” which included Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Julian Schnabel. Tina was married to restaurateur Michael Chow, the founder of Mr. Chow, from 1973-1989, and is mom to China and Maximillian. Tina passed away from complications from AIDS at the age of 41.
When I had posted about Tina on Instagram in 2018, her daughter China Chow, asked that I include “...and ARTIST” in her biography, and happily, I did.
Yoko Ono = Mother. There’s not much for me to say about Yoko that I haven’t said before, but I am including two of my favorite poems from her Grapefruit series, entitled Touch Poem III and Touch Poem IV. Random but happy note: I touched (embracing method) Yoko in 2002.
