July 3, 2021 Kayla Tange & Chuck Hohng created an experience of art performances here at TAG Gallery.

"Beams Too Vast to Hold” by Kayla Tange / Curated by Peter Kalisch

Kayla Tange was born in Seoul, South Korea and adopted at age six months by a Japanese American family residing in Lemoore, California. She moved to Los Angeles in 2000, and among other endeavors at the intersection of art-making, self-discovery, and survival, began performing as an exotic and burlesque dancer, where she served not only as a sexual projection, but as a private confessor. These experiences inspired the performances Confession Box and A Bare Witness in which public space became an interactive confessional. In 2016, Tange created Confession Room, where these stories collected over a two year period were presented in an interactive multimedia installation at Coagula Curatorial in Chinatown. Under the name Coco Ono, she dances with the Bootleg Bombshells at Townhouse in Venice as wells as venues around Los Angeles and New York. She uses confession, sexuality and dark comedy in her performance work to explore love and longing, cultural stereotyping and societal taboos, catharsis and fetish.

Her passions are found in performance, poetry, photography and facilitating a unique relationship between art and audience leading her to create Intentions at Torrance Art Museum in September 2019, Defining Boundaries performed at Human Resources in December 2018 and Dear Mother, a visual letter to her birth-mother directed by Matthew Kaundart, produced by Luka Fisher and herself. All projects explore emotional, physical and cultural confines and transforming stories of shame into a symbolic and valuable medium.

“Norujeon" by Chuck Hohng / Curated by Peter Kalisch

Born in Long Beach, CA and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Chuck Hohng has always been living in the gray area. Not a fully Korean nor an American, his attempt to understand the cultural duality of life has led him to seek a way to connect different cultures through the visual medium. Finished his undergraduate study in Fine Arts at the University of Southern California and earned his MFA at Art Center College of Design, Chuck Hohng had been part of several national and international exhibitions/ art fairs including southern California, France, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and Great Britain.