Black Belt Jones

2001, oil stick on paper, 9 ft x 23 ft
commissioned for the "Black Belt" group exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY and traveled to the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA

ART REVIEW - The Los Angeles Times

FISTS FLYING IN GOODWILL
The martial arts-inspired 'Black Belt' exhibition in Santa Monica focuses on the ties between black and Asian American artists. By Hugh Hart , Special to The Times Jan 26 2005 . The following is an excerpt from the full article.

Artist Y. David Chung is not surprised that so many of his peers have turned to old-school action films for inspiration. "Growing up in the '70s as a kid, Bruce Lee and all those kung fu movies were a huge influence because they were one of the very few things that focused on Asian culture," he says. "Even if those movies were in some ways exploitive, it was still great to see Asian people in the hero role instead of being the dishwasher or something. The action heroes in those films resonated deeply for me and my friends. We took it very seriously. In the black action films as well, you get an extension of that whole idea where somebody's taking on 'the Man,' the powers that be; you could learn fighting skills from the Asian people, create armies, stuff like that. It all had a huge impact."

For the exhibition, Chung contributed a 23-foot-wide oil stick drawing that pays homage to "Black Belt Jones," a 1974 movie featuring Lee's "Enter the Dragon" co-star Jim Kelly in the title role. "The way Jim Kelly moved was amazing, so I wanted to create this epic battle scene where he descends like a mythic hero, totally impervious. There's a classic reference to the Middle Ages, when artists used to paint these mythic battle scenes from the past. To me, this was like a contemporary telling of a mythic tale because when a movie gets ingrained in you, even if you first saw it a long time ago, it becomes sort of a classic or a giant memory."