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Chinese Artists and Organizers Collective 离离草

@caocollective

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CAO creates art to empower relational organizing and (re)build a sustainable community.
离离草艺术小组扎根于中国、华语离散社群及多重边缘的身体经验中，通过集体艺术创作赋能及疗愈社区，为多元、幽微的叙事创造空间。
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❤️‍🔥Opening tonight @voxpopuligallery ! swipe for an in-progress sneak peek from last week :) 變 SLOW BURN On view October 2 – November 15, 2026 Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia Curated by huiyin zhou 徽音 and Laura 嘟嘟 Oct 2, Fri 6-10pm, First Friday Opening Nov 6, Fri 6-10pm First Friday with 7pm performance by Phenon Grace Murphy and Annie Peterson in activation directed by Rah Gerg --- In 變 SLOW BURN, eight artists and collectives explore memory, belonging, grief, queer kinship, dreaming, and transformation. This exhibition brings together installation, performance, video, sound, and painting in Vox’s Gallery One and Black Box spaces. Breathing from the mystical creature of fènghuáng – bigender birds that guard the South and Fire – this exhibition centers the slow burning of grief, rage, resistance, and world building. Etymologically, 變 biàn denotes weaving through silk and words with folding hands. Shifting between meanings of movement, chaos, uprising, and change, 變 gathers collective practice into a relational cosmology shaped by tending, where rebirth unfolds not through spectacular sacrifice, but through the act of coming together again and again. Co-curated by laura 嘟嘟 and huiyin zhou 徽音 of CAO Collective, curators in residence at Vox Populi, as part of An Endless Meeting. taken in Vox Populi by @caocollective
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8 days ago
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❤️‍🔥On view Oct 2 - Nov 15, 2026❤️‍🔥 @voxpopuligallery In 變 SLOW BURN, eight artists and collectives explore memory, belonging, grief, queer kinship, dreaming, and transformation. Bringing together installation, performance, video, sound, and painting in Vox’s Gallery One and Black Box, this exhibition Breathing from the mystical creature of fènghuáng – bigender birds that guard the South and Fire – this exhibition centers the slow burning of grief, rage, resistance, and world building. Etymologically, 變 biàn denotes weaving through silk and words with folding hands. Shifting between meanings of movement, chaos, uprising, and change, 變 gathers collective practice into a relational cosmology shaped by tending, where rebirth unfolds not through spectacular sacrifice, but through the act of coming together again and again. Co-curated by laura 嘟嘟 and huiyin zhou 徽音, curators in residence Vox Populi, as part of An Endless Meeting. PARTICIPATING ARTISTS Gallery One Zainab Zulfiqar @zaizulfi, Cynthia Zhou @ethernautics, Rah Gerg @rah_paints, Voyo Woo @voyowoo, @mengcheng.tn MengCheng 梦城团 Collective Black Box Sarah Trad @thearmoredgirl, Kat Nzingha @katnzinghasdead, CAO Collective 离离草 @caocollective PROGRAMMING: Sept 24, Thurs 7-8pm, Curator Talk + Social Oct 2, Fri 6-10pm, First Friday Opening Nov 6, Fri 6-10pm First Friday with 7pm performance by Phenon Murphy and Annie Peterson in activation directed by Rah Gerg Presented as part of @collectivefutures.info and made possible by generous funding from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage @pewcenterarts Illustration art by yanki kung @yankikboom by @caocollective
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15 days ago
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❤️‍🔥 TODAY @voxpopuligallery ❤️‍🔥 變 SLOW BURN Curator Talk + Social: September 24th, 6:45pm Exhibition in-progress talk and social with Vox’s curators in residence @huiyin.zhou huiyin zhou 徽音 and @lauradudupersonal laura 嘟嘟. 🍵Come hang out and connect over food and boba tea~! Presented as part of "An Endless Meeting: Collective Process, Artistic Labor, and the Politics of Working Together" Co-curators Laura 嘟嘟 and huiyin zhou 徽音 (Vox Populi's An Endless Meeting) will share the collective process behind 變 SLOW BURN — an exhibition bringing together eight Philly-affiliated artists and collectives to explore memory, belonging, grief, queer kinship, dreaming, and transformation. They'll trace the curatorial threads weaving through the show — 變 biàn (change), 鳳凰 fènghuáng (phoenix), and 八卦 bāguà (the eight trigrams) — and how these shaped a relational cosmology of tending, where rebirth unfolds not through spectacular sacrifice but through coming together again and again. SAVE THE DATES! 變 SLOW BURN will open Oct 2 through Nov 15 @voxpopuligallery Gallery One and Black Box. Made possible by generous funding from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage @pewcenterarts Design by @belsh_ taken in Vox Populi by @caocollective
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17 days ago
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In Chinese, 回 (huí) can denote a return, a response, an echo. But it can also embody a map, a memory rippling back into itself. A spiral that folds, collapses, expands. Two holes, two eyes, two mouths – an open grave, a quiet wound, a grief with no end. A portal of (im)possibilities. In the dreams and hauntings of diasporas, what can we still create and hold close to home? Bringing together photography, video, writing, and social practice, this evening program features work from huiyin zhou 徽音 (@huiyin.zhou) & Laura 嘟嘟 (@lauradudupersonal) of CAO Collective (@caocollective) — and Connie Yu (@connieyu121) & Maya Yu Zhang (@bulletsweety) of FORTUNE (@manyfortunes). In the spirit of 中秋 Mid Autumn Festival, the four will engage in a conversation on belonging, nostalgia, intergenerational memory, and collective care. 回 • 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟵 @ulisesbooks 𝟱–𝟳𝗣𝗠 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗼𝗿𝘀. Join us for readings and a video screening, followed by Q&A, and book signing of huiyin zhou’s "nostalgia is the ghost of care" (Homie House Press 2026). Light refreshments provided. Donations (of money, mooncakes, memories, and more) are encouraged. This event is organized on the joint occasions of CAO’s An Endless Meeting collaborative curatorial residency at Vox Populi (@voxpopuligallery), and the closing of 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙨, co-curated by Connie Yu and Maya Yu Zhang. Visit 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙨 August 13–September 20, @studio105atray 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆–𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟮–𝟲𝗣𝗠 RSVP above! 🔗 Image descriptions in comments below. by @caocollective
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a month ago
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LAST WEEK TO APPLY 📣 OPEN CALL: 凤凰 FENGHUANG
Due Monday, August 17 📍 Calling Philadelphia-based artists with a current or past connection to collective work in the city 🔗 Apply via the link in our bio Vox‘s Curatorial Residents for An Endless Meeting — CAO Collective 离离草 (@caocollective) — are hosting an open call for their fall exhibition. ”We propose to curate through Fenghuang — a composite, relational figure from Chinese cosmology often mistranslated as ’phoenix‘ — as a framework for working with grief, dream, and transformation. Unlike the solitary bird of heroic burning, Fenghuang is feng and huang held together: a body constantly reimagined through fragments, care, and continual encounter. Associated with the south and with Fire, Fenghuang carries a quiet resonance with the Global South, diasporic movement, and queer ways of living relationally — a homecoming and an unlearning at once. To curate through this figure is to gather collectives into a cosmology that is not linear but circular, less shaped by rupture than by tending: where legacy and hope are not only preserved but permitted to bloom, degenerate, and return — where rebirth unfolds not through spectacle, but through the slow, burning grace of coming together again and again.“ Supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage @pewcenterarts
Design by @belsh_ #OpenCall #PhiladelphiaArt #PhillyArtists #CollectiveWork #SocialPractice CAOCollective AnEndlessMeeting VoxPopuli Fenghuang 凤凰 DiasporaArt ContemporaryArt taken in Vox Populi by @caocollective
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2 months ago
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Collective Poetry Writing Workshop July 26 2026, Sunday 7-9pm Unbound Bookstore 38 Waverly Pl, San Francisco, CA 94108 RSVP required on Luma, link in bio. 彩虹的梦🌈- 青色/蓝色 Rainbow Dream Collective Poetry Writing Series - Blue 天空，海洋，在离境与抵达之间，飞行，航行，夜来临前，悬浮的时刻， 蓝色的梦。 What is your bluest dream? What has blue spoken to you, in your life? 这一次，我们以接龙诗 (exquisite corpse) 的方式共同创作——你写下一句，交给下一个人，像是传递彼此的信，诗的尽头，我们拼出一整片海洋。我们的文字，是水，也是船。 This time, we write together in the style of exquisite corpse — you write a line, then pass it on, like passing a letter between us. By the poem’s end, we’ll have pieced together an entire ocean —our words both the water, and the boat that carries us across it. Rooted in CAO Collective’s long-term project One Thousand and One Nights: A Queer Journey of Dreams & Diaspora, this gathering invites participants to share bedtime stories, dream fragments, and reflections on rest, longing, and diasporic home-making. Through somatic practice, guided writing, and facilitated conversation, we will weave a collective dreamscape — one that holds grief, desire, memory, and imagination all at once. The writing co-created in this session will contribute to an ongoing collective dream archive. 🌊 无需诗歌写作经验，欢迎带着你的表达、你的蓝色、和你的梦。 No writing experience needed — come as you are, in whatever language your blue speaks. Poster graphic is designed by laura dudu with original painting by @ghib.li isabel 玥 li taken in Unbound Bookstore 格外书店 by @caocollective
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3 months ago
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Date + time: July 26 2026, Sunday 3-5 pm Doors Open: 2:45 pm Venue: Unbound Bookstore 38 Waverly Pl, San Francisco, CA 94108 RSVP on Luma, link in Bio Join us for an intimate sharing of film, photography, and conversation with Laura (嘟嘟) and huiyin zhou, co-parents of CAO Collective. The afternoon program will feature a screening of Just Like Your Tenderness (10 min., 2026) — a single, unbroken long take observing a day of caregiving between Laura and their grandmother in hospice care. Tender, unhurried, and resistant to spectacle, the film attends to small gestures and shared breath as a form of communication across language, generation, and distance. Following the screening, huiyin will share their recent publication NOSTALGIA IS THE GHOST OF CARE 在未来怀念一片云彩 (Homie House Press / kawan pan, 2026) — a mixed-media photo book that holds nostalgia in the future tense, weaving together archival and newly created images in collaboration with BIPOC and queer friends. The event closes with an artist talk and conversation between the two, tracing the threads that connect their practices: diasporic memory, care labor, queer kinship, and the archive as a living thing. Open social time and book signing will follow. Screening will start promptly at 3:15pm. taken in Unbound Bookstore 格外书店 by @caocollective
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3 months ago
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Join us on Saturday, July 18 for an afternoon of book talks, film, and conversation with our current artists-in-residence. 📚 2–3pm: Artist-in-residence Rami George @rami_george joins Kiki Salem @low_key_ki for a conversation about Jadu’i Book, a risograph publication featuring commissioned works by seven Palestinian artists. 🎬 3–5pm: CAO Collective @caocollective presents a screening of Just Like Your Tenderness, followed by a book talk on NOSTALGIA IS THE GHOST OF CARE 在未来怀念一片云彩 and a conversation exploring care, memory, queer kinship, and the archive. Click through to learn more about each artist and program. Free and open to all—register at the link in bio. Images 1-4: images courtesy of CAO Collective Images 5-6: Jadu’i Book taken in The Luminary by @caocollective
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3 months ago
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Please join us in welcoming our Free Speech & Creative Expression Residency Cohort to The Luminary! Rami George (@rami_george) is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Lenapehoking in what is now called Philadelphia. They have exhibited and screened broadly and remain motivated by political struggles and fractured narratives. Joyce Chung (@_joycechung) is the Curator at Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia, where she leads the organization’s exhibition and performance programs. Her interdisciplinary approach examines identity, memory, and marginalization, with particular attention to how capitalism and power structures shape lived experiences. She is especially drawn to performance and time-based media for their ability to position the body as a site of resistance, reconciliation, and embodied memory. She has held curatorial roles at institutions in Korea and the U.S., including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwangju Biennale, Hyundai Card, Kukje Gallery, and Performa in New York. Chung holds an MA in the Humanities from the University of Chicago and a BA in Art History from Wesleyan University. Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) Collective (@caocollective) creates art to empower relational community healing. Their works investigate systems of discipline, control, censorship, and capitalist extraction and reimagine memory/memorials, rituals, intimacy, and queer/feminist kinship to (re)build sustainable community infrastructures. From punching sticky rice to channel queer feminist rage to collectively write poems about grief and care, CAO’s work is collaborative and continues to evolve in community. Their work has been supported by Snapdragon Fund, SEEK Raleigh, Asian American Arts Alliance, The New Breath Foundation, ChineseFeminism, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and many community members. www.caocollective.com/ @caocollective We’re hosting a meet and greet this Thursday, July 9th from 6-8 PM and a Screening and Book Talk on Saturday, July 18th from 2-5 PM. Learn more and RSVP in our link in bio! by @caocollective
14
3 months ago
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DURHAM, NC: join us for SUMMER'S HOME: a community artshow + poetry kickback for local queer and bipoc creatives 🗓️ saturday june 13th 4-7pm (poetry event) sunday june 14th 12-6pm (open gallery viewing) 📍 location: queen street magic boat (406 n queen st) 🎟️ suggested donation $5-10 at the door to cover the cost of hosting the space. the remaining proceeds will go to the performers, artists, and organizers co-curated by huiyin zhou and sara rodrick, this space welcomes all things pastel, soft, dreamy, tender, waves, winds,sweat, heat, memory, nostalgia, (be)longing, yearning, lusting, crushes(???**!!!) 6/13 readings will be held from 4-5pm. we’ll open the floor for an open mic followed by social/gallery time with dj esoderic on deck masks required! we keep us safe! poster design by @yankikboom huge thanks to our co-sponsers @kundimanforever Kundiman South, @snapdragon_fund, CAO Collective, and all the contributing poets and artists by @caocollective
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4 months ago
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小满 · Lesser Fullness · May 21st 小得盈满 — fullness found in the small. The eighth solar term. On March 21st, we made something with our hands and bodies alongside @feministcenterforcreativework and @welcometolace — and dearest yessi.dj and @oddtresleches caught the ritual in motion. We're so grateful to finally share this recap as moving image. This is exactly when Ciba Punch belongs in the world. The pounding is the ritual. The sweat, the rest, the being-together — already full. Gratitude to Julia @ilotnasailuj and Laura for embodying our spiritual figures, and to every body, every energy, every ancestor and future in that room. 🌾 by @caocollective
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5 months ago
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On March 20th, CAO Collective gathered with @feministcenterforcreativework and @welcometolace for a collective poetry workshop — and we began, simply, by asking: how have you been sleeping? We started with ourselves. with the body. with what wakes us and what holds us. Participants wrote and drew into journals — tracing the textures of rest, of waking, of what safety feels like when it actually arrives. Then we turned to each other. Through our signature exquisite-corpse-style collective writing, each person continued what the person before them had started — building intimate, layered poems across pages, across strangers who became kin. queer feminist poetics as conversation. as call and response. as care. We wrote about dreams — literal or symbolic — where we felt warmth, love, tenderness, safety. and through collective breathing and guided meditation, we wove those dreams together into something shared. At the end, we sat in a circle. Each person offered one word from their writing. what came back to us: holding. embracing. jumping. flying. circling. grass. sky.... nature. love. connection. community. this is our collective future — dreamed together, tended together 🌿 thank you to everyone who brought your dreams into the room 🙏 photos by huiyin taken in Feminist Center for Creative Work by @caocollective
2
6 months ago
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