Cedric Tai

"Let's Not and Say We Did"
20'' x 17''
(2021)
Design by Mark Allen, Materials: Glass and Color Line Screenprinting Ink

1 of 3 artist proofs, price upon request

I made posters for an art event that never happened, and doubling down explaining over social media and in e-mails that due to the pandemic my grand efforts were thwarted leaving me with these sole artifacts.

I feel like we don't talk about how our artistic and professional ambitions are unwieldy and especially absurd during a worldwide pandemic that ought to be a moment to re-consider how we project productivity and status on social media. I asked Mark Allen of the now defunct Machine Project to lend legitimacy to my "Let's Not and Say We Did" poster where he started the overall design and later sent me the files so that I could finish it while I mulled over which 'sponsors' to name in my epic transcontinental event.

My poster claims that this event had lined up 18 sponsors ranging from made up organizations, (The Seahawk Interdisciplinary Program is a reference to my friend K Bradford) to one that I've heard may be interested in expanding into mental health (Noom) as well as organizations that explicitly asked me not to name them. Mark is being gifted one of these posters as he has been designing playful posters pro-bono for friends' events for over a decade.

Although I may be shooting myself in the foot for making fun of 'dreaming big', (and actually in true rushing fashion, one of the posters broke in my haste packing them up from my artist-in-residency at Yucca Valley Material Lab), often large organizations and other funding bodies do request ephemera such as advertising posters to prove that one has done the work of putting public programming out in the world.

In this past month, I've noticed many art professionals who haven't been able to get people to come to their online events while popular in-person venues were increasingly packed once the first vaccines were unrolled. Rather than have a discussion about a kind of social capital inequality this may represent, I noticed that friends vowed to double down further to 'be better' at telling friends earlier about upcoming events. I'm taking the radically self-compassionate approach that beyond showing up as one is, and attended to our reasonable low energy and boundaries, to actually celebrate how we didn't over exert ourselves and how that makes space for rest, the imagination, and actual care. Under the guise of radical-neurodivergent-artworks where 'we as artists have already arrived' / 'the work begins as finished as it needs to be', either this project will set in motion 'Do-Less-With-More' and could inadvertently create forward momentum in my larger collaborative projects and I'm simply chronologically challenged, or this project is simply a reminder to myself and friends that some of the best artworks have been made when deliberately not trying to impress anyone but simply make 'bad art', exorcise the 'shame gremlins', and ride the wave that feels like one is 'getting away with something'.

Detail of Artist Proof #2

Detail of Artist Proof #1

"This Time I'm Going to Win" (2018)

Materials: Mirrors, fishing line, hook, wood, hinges, paint, glue

(Size: 32" x 12" x variable height)

This sculpture is based on something my therapist mentioned about people in denial. He said, "Imagine this middle aged man driving a red convertable, and the car's license plate has the frame around it, and it says, "This Time I'm Going to Win". I wanted to make something interactive that even as the viewer flips from one mirrored slice to another, the view never changes.

Photos by Josh Schaedel

"Self-Care, CBT, and CBD" (2018)

Materials: Mirrors, rope, stick on gems, hot melt adhesive, hinges

(Size: 12" x 4" x 54")

Photo by Josh Schaedel