Xiouping possesses a trove of analogue images, pictures she’s made of classic-era hip hop artists in repose. Her presence informs each photographic frame, offering soft comment on persona, place, time, and medium. Subject and photographer conspire in making this Los Angeles New Genres artist calls, “Herstory" for you to see through her eyes. The pictures are part of the multimedia work-in-progress "Reconstruction of the Destruction, A Analogue Time Capsule."
Such inside-out exploration of identity is uniquely Xiouping. Born in California native born at Edwards Airforce Base where the space shuttles land. the New Genres artist was raised in a string of crowded homes across California and Texas sometimes living with as many as 13 relatives. She grew up as “Crystal” — an Americanized name given by her Texas-born Richard Whitworth father — and was so shy at age four that Xiouping/Crystal’s mother Shu Chen Chang- Whitworth enrolled her in Chinese ballet as a means addressing the introversion. Through high school she studied and performed, first tap, then break-dancing and modern. To most budding artists, a broad base like this would establish the full range of their expression. For Xiou, dance formed but a foundation.
Her artistic identity asserted itself in college. Crystal in one world and XiouPing in another, she first came across ceramics in high school and then painting. By the time Xiouping was a Santa Cruz Community College student, she was also modeling and documenting the local music scene with a 35mm canon camera provided by her father. When Chang’s paintings earned her the opportunity to study at Art Institute of San Francisco with interest in video art and performance, she changed her major New Genres major this allowed Chang to bring her every discipline to bear , as well as study with pioneers such as Tony Labat, Lydia Lunch & George Kuchar. It was at the end of this official education that the world of hip-hop introduced Xiouping, aka Crystal Chang; aka The Changsta, to the work she’s continued to develop through the present.
“I was living this culture, this life. It was my favorite music at the time; it came with my rebellious nature,” says the artist. “People just wanted me there.”
Chang’s post-collegiate work has slyly steered the artist toward "Reconstruction Of The Destruction, A Analogue Time Capsule" From the 30-second pieces she produced for MTV in the nineties to her visual shows at San Francisco’s Diego Rivera Gallery and Chang’s study of the Meisner Technique with Elaine Williams and Joanne Baron, there’s been a relentless effort to expand both grasp and articulation. The maturation of her acting and modeling skills is reflected in Chang’s indie film and theatrical work as well as in her ongoing analogue “Herstory” self portrait series.
A multi-discipline mastery underpins Chang’s multimedia hip-hop project so that it might loom as a defining-career statement. Each previously unseen photographic image — captured from 1989 to 2004—stands independently as moment in time, captured, and reflects the grit and immediacy of the artist’s heroes Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramović, Nan Goldin, Mike Kelly, & Larry Clark. A sense of how her collaborators want her in the scene is tangible. Beyond the photo documents, which Chang is has begun to alter and enhance are, “words and performance that will give you the feeling of being there.”
Such inside-out exploration of identity is uniquely Xiouping. Born in California native born at Edwards Airforce Base where the space shuttles land. the New Genres artist was raised in a string of crowded homes across California and Texas sometimes living with as many as 13 relatives. She grew up as “Crystal” — an Americanized name given by her Texas-born Richard Whitworth father — and was so shy at age four that Xiouping/Crystal’s mother Shu Chen Chang- Whitworth enrolled her in Chinese ballet as a means addressing the introversion. Through high school she studied and performed, first tap, then break-dancing and modern. To most budding artists, a broad base like this would establish the full range of their expression. For Xiou, dance formed but a foundation.
Her artistic identity asserted itself in college. Crystal in one world and XiouPing in another, she first came across ceramics in high school and then painting. By the time Xiouping was a Santa Cruz Community College student, she was also modeling and documenting the local music scene with a 35mm canon camera provided by her father. When Chang’s paintings earned her the opportunity to study at Art Institute of San Francisco with interest in video art and performance, she changed her major New Genres major this allowed Chang to bring her every discipline to bear , as well as study with pioneers such as Tony Labat, Lydia Lunch & George Kuchar. It was at the end of this official education that the world of hip-hop introduced Xiouping, aka Crystal Chang; aka The Changsta, to the work she’s continued to develop through the present.
“I was living this culture, this life. It was my favorite music at the time; it came with my rebellious nature,” says the artist. “People just wanted me there.”
Chang’s post-collegiate work has slyly steered the artist toward "Reconstruction Of The Destruction, A Analogue Time Capsule" From the 30-second pieces she produced for MTV in the nineties to her visual shows at San Francisco’s Diego Rivera Gallery and Chang’s study of the Meisner Technique with Elaine Williams and Joanne Baron, there’s been a relentless effort to expand both grasp and articulation. The maturation of her acting and modeling skills is reflected in Chang’s indie film and theatrical work as well as in her ongoing analogue “Herstory” self portrait series.
A multi-discipline mastery underpins Chang’s multimedia hip-hop project so that it might loom as a defining-career statement. Each previously unseen photographic image — captured from 1989 to 2004—stands independently as moment in time, captured, and reflects the grit and immediacy of the artist’s heroes Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramović, Nan Goldin, Mike Kelly, & Larry Clark. A sense of how her collaborators want her in the scene is tangible. Beyond the photo documents, which Chang is has begun to alter and enhance are, “words and performance that will give you the feeling of being there.”
Education
1995 BFA San Francisco Art Institute
Upcoming Exhibitions and Projects
2019 APT 4B, LA "an analog time capsule"
2019 HAC GALLERY, HAWTHORNE "
Selected Group Exibitions
1994 DIEGO RIVERA GALLERY, SF "Can I Get A Witness"
1995 ACME GALLERY, SF
2006 SNEAKER PIMPS, NYC "Sneaker Pimps"
1008 RIGHT WINDOW ATA, SF
2010 ART TANK, LA
2015 KGB STUDIOS, LA "Chocolate"
2017 ANGEL BIOTEK POP UP, Venice Beach "Hella Tight"
2017 ART SHARE, LA "Ruff,Rugged and Raw"
2019 PLAY NICE, LBC "The Girl With The Lost Film"
1995 BFA San Francisco Art Institute
Upcoming Exhibitions and Projects
2019 APT 4B, LA "an analog time capsule"
2019 HAC GALLERY, HAWTHORNE "
Selected Group Exibitions
1994 DIEGO RIVERA GALLERY, SF "Can I Get A Witness"
1995 ACME GALLERY, SF
2006 SNEAKER PIMPS, NYC "Sneaker Pimps"
1008 RIGHT WINDOW ATA, SF
2010 ART TANK, LA
2015 KGB STUDIOS, LA "Chocolate"
2017 ANGEL BIOTEK POP UP, Venice Beach "Hella Tight"
2017 ART SHARE, LA "Ruff,Rugged and Raw"
2019 PLAY NICE, LBC "The Girl With The Lost Film"