Field Reports, Part I: Art Encounters

When looking at Chan's "Baghdad In No Particular Order," and comparing it to another of his works, "Waiting for Godot in New Orleans," several key elements stand out to the astute observer. The first of these is that as an artist, Chan seems to be somewhat 'allergic' to taking a frontal role in the development and ownership of his art pieces. As was seen in "Baghdad In No Particular Order," the presence of a 'director' or 'organizer' of the piece seemed to be nonexistent. At times it seemed as if the viewer was there experiencing Baghdad himself, as opposed to watching someone else experience it. This was contributed to by the fact that Chan was never seen talking on camera, his voice was never heard during the whole film, and by the fact that Chan had several other people filming, who were relatives and acquaintances of the families in Baghdad. This all leads to the fact that Chan cares more about the art and the message than he does about recognition, which is a very admirable trait in this field.

One can compare Chan's "Baghdad In No Particular Order" to "Waiting for Godot in New Orleans" thusly as well. Chan never seemed to be the forefront of the operation, he was always behind the scenes giving his ideas to people and helping them rebuild the community of New Orleans, in such ways as subtly placing signs on the streets containing the first three lines of Samuel Beckett's play, and creating a "Shadow Fund," which donated all of its earnings to struggling families in New Orleans.

Both of Chan's pieces help shed light on controversial issues, whether it is the mishandling of the post Katrina wreckage, in which families could relate to Samuel Beckett's play by seemingly always to be waiting for help, guidance or shelter, or the quagmire in Iraq, where thousands of families have been destroyed by our involvement. The pieces never seem to directly attack any particular entity or lay blame, only describing events as they unfold, and in documenting these people, Chan seems only to want to be able to understand what it is like to be a family affected by disaster, to empathize with them, and to try to allow the viewer to do the same.