ArtAsiaPacific: The Rematch

smARTpower, an initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Bronx Museum of the Arts, is working with 15 American artists to create in situ community projects overseas, including New York-based artist Duke Riley. In Shanghai, Riley, known for his nautical performances, organized a boat race held on April 15 along the Huangpu River. Each of the dozen gondolas represented an animal from the Chinese zodiac. Local rowers, Chinese opera singers and elementary school students contributed their efforts in the racing event. Even live animals from the Zhujiajiao region were brought onto the boats.

Click the arrows on the bottom of the image to see the full slide show.

smARTpower sent Duke Riley to China to undertake a project within 45 days. In Zhujiajiao, a canal village just outside of Shanghai, Riley re-staged the mythical swimming race that determined the order of the Shengxiao (the Chinese Zodiac).

After holding drawing workshops with local 6th graders, Riley submitted their animal drawings to the Zhujiajiao embroiderers, who translated them into burgees—a nod to Riley’s nautical background.

Riley collaborated with a costume designer from the Shanghai Theater Academy to create costumes for the Zhujiajiao opera singers who sang the animals’ virtues from the bedecked gondolas.

Two Zhujiajiao rowers look toward the Fengshang Bridge, surveying the race course.

On your mark, get set, rematch!!

Weighing in at the heftiest of the 12 animals, the ox overcame odds stacked against it to finish at an impressive second place.

Broadcast Students Chun Xia and Jessica shared MC duties atop the bridge.

The pig finished eighth, improving its lot by four spots since 5,000 years ago.

Instead of an animal, the tiger was performed by Eliza Stamps.

At the Award Ceremony at Fengshang Pavilion, the rower of the horse gondola is presented with a homespun trophy built from stray flower pots and sprayed with gold paint, while the second place ox looks on.

See a video of the race here.

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