In Collaboration with Jeff Bliumis
CULTURAL TIPS FOR NEW AMERICANS
2011-ongoing, series of objects, Wood and ink, Dimensions variable, Unique.
Throughout their practice, Alina and Jeff Bliumis engage in an ongoing investigation into foreignness and the ontology of cultural misfits. As exemplified by the title of their first catalogue, Receiving the Stranger, the artists’ work is rooted in the desire to communicate through difference. Using communication as the medium par excellence, their projects raise questions around what constitutes community, what constitutes borders, and how the former are shaped by the latter. Most importantly, the artists acknowledge that language itself can function as a border, as a paradigm of power, and can be used to frame communities. In the words of literary theorist Leo Bersani, language doesn’t merely describe identity but actually produces it.
In 2011, the artists set out to compile advice that people who consider themselves “real Americans” give to newcomers, to supposedly help them assimilate to their new surroundings. Characterized by a certain lightheartedness and humor, these cultural tips in fact reveal inherent aspects of American society and say more about Americans themselves than the communities to whom they address their advice.
Having immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe, Alina and Jeff Bliumis picked up on this American encouragement to “blend in” early on. Now, in the wake of our current political climate, the artists felt an urgency to revisit this project, and gathered additional cultural tips for new Americans living under the Trump presidency using handbooks, public forums, street questionnaires, and social media. The collection of tips that resulted from the artists’ inquiry ranges from amusing suggestions (If someone says ‘come over anytime’ don’t take it literally) to harsh realities (Sometimes undocumented immigrants stay undocumented for a long time). Concurrently, the artists collected ethnic wooden souvenirs, which radiate a certain fetishization of otherness, from all around New York City and sandblasted these objects to remove their original decorations and uncover the wood underneath. The cultural tips are then written onto the wooden souvenirs in ink, causing them to become decontextualized objects, much like the immigrants to whom the cultural tips are addressed.
by Ksenia M. Soboleva,
To be a foreigner — one who is defined as not from here — often means unknowingly breaking rigid social and cultural rules. Definitions of these social and cultural standards often say a lot about the native society. As the proverbial Land of Opportunity, the United States has always had a steady stream of new Americans and "what it means to be an American" is loudly and frequently discussed on national television.
For Cultural Tips For New Americans project, we gathered advice to help recent arrivals assimilate and understand their new home. We took advice from published guides, public forums, streets questionnaires, social websites, and friends to create tips like:
"When two Americans are standing and talking to each other they stay at least 16 inches away from each other." Life in the USA, The Complete Guide for Immigrants and Americans by Elliot Essman
and
"Never refuse gum if an American offers it to use. Offering gum is a polite way to tell someone that they have bad breath." Jenny W. on Facebook
We have illustrated these tips and produced Cultural Tips handbook, phone kiosk posters, stickers and sculptural series.
We installed the posters onto phone kiosks and placed stickers in various places on the Bowery and in Chinatown and Soho, from May 1 to May 28, 2011.
Accompanying the street-level posters, we engaged with the lower east side community and gathered one hundred and four new cultural tips from visitors, in exchange for the handbook on Saturday May 7, 2011 at NoLongerEmpty booth / Rivington and Chrystie Streets New York, during the Festival of Ideas for the New City organized by the New Museum.
*The project has been made possible by the Franklin Furnace Fund, Blue Print Fellowship, NoLongerEmpty and The Festival of Ideas for the New City, organized by the New Museum.
