The story behind my portrait is that my grandpa, many generations ago, married a Chinese woman. My Chinese grandmother enforced many Chinese rituals and customs into the paternal rituals. Now my clan members practice certain rituals that are different from other clans in respect to the Chinese culture of my Chinese grandmother.
The red cloth covering my head is used in traditional Chinese wedding and the black blouse with pink and green stripes is a Hmong blouse indicative of my clan and region. The wedding wears are used to portray the union of my grandmother's culture and my grandfather's culture. The mixing of the heritages did not deteriorate the Hmong culture or the Chinese culture. I used "make-up" products as the medium to imply the making up of an evolving hybrid culture.
This piece makes me think about the "white genocide" which we talked about it class. Of how mixing with other race will dilute the purity of the race. But the art speaks for itself. Regarding to the visual of the art, I think that it's unique because the tool used is make up. Improvement of this piece may go into explaining how mix-race won't dilute but enrich the culture.
ReplyDeleteI think it is so inventive and creative to use makeup as an art medium. You mentioning of Cindy Nakashima's guest lecture was very appropriate, as I further understood the delusions towards interracial marriage and you "dilution" of race. Thank you for sharing the story of the grandparents and explaining important aspects of your culture. My only suggestion is to mention what race your Grandfather is, as I was a little confused since you only focused on your grandmothers race but I thought it was be important to include his too. Besides that, this is a very interesting and insightful piece.
ReplyDeleteThis is very creative. I appreciate the background history because it made me understand where you're from. It's interesting that you used make-up as a medium to represent the making up of a hybrid culture. I think that is a great idea. I also liked how your artist statement explained your ideas very well. Great job
ReplyDeleteWow! What an inspirational story that is truly depicted in your art piece. I enjoyed reading about your background as it gave me insight into where your family is from as well as how you see yourself. The connection you made to interracial marriages being a "dilution" of race particularly discussed within the Japanese culture. I acknowledged that you counter-critiqued it by showcasing that your grandparents transcended these cultural boundaries and embraced their own cultures and passed it down to their children to create a beautiful tradition, where you do not choose one culture over the other but together. Great work!
ReplyDeleteWow! What an inspirational story that is truly depicted in your art piece. I enjoyed reading about your background as it gave me insight into where your family is from as well as how you see yourself. The connection you made to interracial marriages being a "dilution" of race particularly discussed within the Japanese culture. I acknowledged that you counter-critiqued it by showcasing that your grandparents transcended these cultural boundaries and embraced their own cultures and passed it down to their children to create a beautiful tradition, where you do not choose one culture over the other but together. Great work!
ReplyDelete