Protocinema

30/06/2026

Take a virtual walkthrough of ’s latest exhibition Mulberry Bend! ✨

This group exhibition explores the relationship between art’s autonomy, use value, and civic function by responding to contemporary social struggles facing the community in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Participating Artists:
Canal Street Research Association CSRA
David L. Johnson David L. Johnson
Sidian Liu Sidian Liu
Paul Pfeiffer Paul Pfeiffer

Mulberry Bend was curated by Dylan Seh-Jin Kim Dylan Seh-Jin Kim within Protocinema Emerging Curator Series 2025-2026, and mentored by Mari Spirito Mari Spirito, Jessica Kwok , and Christopher Y. Lew christopherylew.

Hosted at

26/06/2026

All of you!!

Canal Street Research Association CSRA and Mulberry Bend Public Program Protocinema collaborated with artists/workers’ rights lawyer Siyan Wong Siyan Wong and SureWeCan Sure We Can, non-profit recycling center community space and sustainability hub in Brooklyn, to set up a temporary redemption center in Columbus Park on May 26th. We advocated to raise the canner wage to TEN CENTS from the current amount which is five cents (& was set in 1982) per can.

In just a few hours, over 50,000 cans were collected at 10 cents timed with the Bigger Better Bottle Bill that came up in Albany last month yet has yet to pass. Work to pass this bill continues for ecological concerns as well as labor rights.

This temporary redemption center took place within ’s Mulberry Bend, a group exhibition exploring the relationship between art’s autonomy, use value, and civic function by responding to contemporary social struggles facing the community.

Canal Street Research Association, founded by Ming Lin Ming and Alex Tatarsky Alex Tatarsky, participated in Mulberry Bend exhibition with newly commissioned artworks centered on the local legacies of gleaning, from the ragpickers of nearby Ragpickers’ Court (where Columbus Park is today) to present-day canners and trash pickers. Conducting their research from a purpose built on-site office, they foregrounded the under-recognized and under-compensated labor of local recyclers as ecological engineers operating at the margins.

Thanks to ALL of you!!!

11/06/2026

✨Mulberry Bend press round up✨

“Together, these works flip the coin of art and its elsewhere. They pass in and out of elective presentation as art, and in moving over this threshold elucidate the needs, affordances, and values that direct each sphere.” — IMPULSE Magazine

Thank you IMPULSE Magazine Frieze Documented Gabriel Allred for your thoughtful features!

Swipe to read the press highlights... 👉

07/06/2026

IIT’s A WRAP! ✨ It’s been a joy and an honor to mentor Dylan Seh-Jin Kim on Mulberry Bend, his group exhibition within Protocinema’s Emerging Curator Program with new commissioned works of Sidian Liu , Canal Street Research Association , David L. Johnson , and Paul Pfeiffer , hosted by Immigrant Social Services . Dylan was also mentored by Christopher Y. Lew and Jessica Kwok . Today, we had the second performance by Sidian Liu and are enjoying our final moments of this thoughtful and moving exhibition. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in it and looking forward to whatever the future holds.

01/06/2026

Join us for the final public program at Mulberry Bend with !

📅 Saturday, June 6 & Sunday, June 7
⏰ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
📍127 Walker Street

For two durational performances marking the final phase of “照拂 reflect/brush”, Sidian Liu activates “cleaning tools” created from the collected hair of participants who self-identify as local caregivers and use these tools in acts of caregiving.

During the performances, audiences are invited to enter a designated cleaning zone where Liu enacts the tools through brushing, caressing, and grooming gestures learned from participants.

🔗 More details:
https://www.protocinema.org/exhibitions/mulberry-bend-public-programs

26/05/2026

23/05/2026

Join us for the public programs of Mulberry Bend!

📅 Tuesday, May 26, 8am–12pm
▪️Pop-up Redemption Center with Sure We Can & Can Fortunes
Canal Street Research Association stages a pop-up redemption center at Columbus Park in collaboration with local canner advocacy organization Sure We Can and artist Siyan Wong .

📅 Tuesday, May 26, 4pm–6pm
▪️Canner Press Conference & Community Panel
Press conference and panel conversation with Executive Director of Ryan Costelia, local artist and advocate Siyan Wong , and local independent recycler Ah Xim, as well as New York State Assembly Member Grace Lee and New York City Council Member Chris Marte .

📅 Sunday, May 31, 3pm–4pm
▪️Curator Walkthrough with Art Against Displacement
Dylan Seh-Jin Kim gives a walkthrough of Mulberry Bend organized with Art Against Displacement .nyc, a collective of artists and cultural workers that opposes predatory development in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, as well as the in-progress megajail. 

📅Saturday, June 6 & Sunday, June 7, 3pm–5pm
▪️照拂 reflect/brush Performances
For two durational performances marking the final phase of 照拂 reflect/brush, Sidian Liu activates “cleaning tools” created from the collected hair of participants who self-identify as local caregivers and use these tools in acts of caregiving. Audiences are invited to enter a designated cleaning zone where Liu enacts the tools through brushing, caressing, and grooming gestures learned from participants.

The public programs are co-sponsored by and Independent Curators International (ICI) .

🔗 More details:
https://www.protocinema.org/exhibitions/mulberry-bend-public-programs

23/05/2026

Join us for the public programs of Mulberry Bend!

📅 Tuesday, May 26, 8am–12pm
▪️Pop-up Redemption Center with Sure We Can & Can Fortunes
Canal Street Research Association stages a pop-up redemption center at Columbus Park in collaboration with local canner advocacy organization Sure We Can and artist Siyan Wong .

📅 Tuesday, May 26, 4pm–6pm
▪️Canner Press Conference & Community Panel
Press conference and panel conversation with Executive Director of Ryan Costelia, local artist and advocate Siyan Wong , and local independent recycler Ah Xim, as well as New York State Assembly Member Grace Lee and New York City Council Member Chris Marte .

📅 Sunday, May 31, 3pm–4pm
▪️Curator Walkthrough with Art Against Displacement
Dylan Seh-Jin Kim gives a walkthrough of Mulberry Bend organized with Art Against Displacement .nyc, a collective of artists and cultural workers that opposes predatory development in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, as well as the in-progress megajail. 

📅Saturday, June 6 & Sunday, June 7, 3pm–5pm
▪️照拂 reflect/brush Performances
For two durational performances marking the final phase of 照拂 reflect/brush, Sidian Liu activates “cleaning tools” created from the collected hair of participants who self-identify as local caregivers and use these tools in acts of caregiving. During the performances, audiences are invited to enter a designated cleaning zone where Liu enacts the tools through brushing, caressing, and grooming gestures learned from participants.

The public programs are co-sponsored by and Independent Curators International (ICI) .

🔗 More details:
https://www.protocinema.org/exhibitions/mulberry-bend-public-programs

17/05/2026

Paul Pfeiffer presents “Perspective Study,” projecting footage of the construction site on 124-125 Walker St. where the Borough-Based Jail Facility is scheduled to be built. Using the video as a backdrop, Pfeiffer creates an adjunct platform for the voices and positions of stakeholders who have been involved for years in the protest against the jail construction, the construction itself, affordable housing alternatives, and/or the context and history of the site.

Paul Pfeiffer is an artist living and working in New York City, who has been making work in video, photography, installation, and sculpture since the late 1990s. Known for his innovative manipulation of digital media, Pfeiffer recasts the visual language of mass media spectacle to examine how images shape our awareness of ourselves and the world.