Photo credit: Mel Taing. Ode to Durian (We Are Ineffable), Digital Photography 18 x 24
Our identities as Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are shaped by our racial and ethnic identities and cultural understandings interwoven with our embodied experiences, but what it means to be part of the AAPI community lies beyond our shared biological traits and overlapping ancestral histories. Even the language that we use to categorize and define ourselves, though powerful, is highly imperfect and constantly evolving in response to new considerations. Some of us feel tethered to the cultural norms of our communities, resisting and embracing different elements over time. Others feel closely tethered to the white gaze and the stereotypes projected onto our communities and ourselves. How are the cultural norms of our communities reflected in our bodily expressions? How do our bodies offer opportunities for liberation and healing from the stereotypes projected onto us? The artists included in this segment of New Narratives explore how identity is deeply connected with, but not limited by, our physical selves.
Embodied Identities is part of New Narratives curated by guest curator Leslie Anne Condon and first exhibited in 2020 through Unbound Visual Arts.
Experience Embodied Identities with our 3D virtual tour：
Embodied Identities was on view at Pao Arts Center from October 21 to December 17, 2021.
About the Artists:
Maria Fong is an artist from Berkeley, California. She is currently earning her BFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Maria works in hand-drawn and stop-motion animation, drawing, performance art, and bookmaking. She is dedicated to making work that tells silenced stories and fosters interaction between people. Her collaborative artworks explore racialized and politicized spaces, community building, and expansive Asian American identities. Fong was a 2020 Pao Art Center Residence Lab artist, a program that connects artists and Boston Chinatown residents in the creation of public art.
Eugene La Rochelle
Eugene La Rochelle was born in Fulda, West Germany in 1987. As the son of an American soldier, he spent his formative years traveling between military installations. Through military culture, he examined and learned the effects of US military colonialism and its effects on the surrounding country. This experience has directly informed his work on miscegenation and identity. After graduating with a Master’s degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2013, he has been focusing on identity politics in South Korea and how American foreign policy has directly affected the treatment of mixed-race Koreans today.
Brenda Lau is a Boston-based visual artist utilizing her creative process as a mindfulness practice. She is primarily inspired by the relationships between and surrounding existence within our flesh and the rest of the natural world. Her work is an intimate projection of her seeking, yearning, accepting, as well as learning.
Jennifer grew up in Philadelphia. She attended Syracuse University in addition to receiving her MFA from Boston University. Jennifer’s work has been featured and a part of The Vendue Art Hotel, Massachusetts State Senate [Sen. Will Brownsberger], Four Seasons Downtown Boston, Kayak, Boston Consulting Group, Boston College Office of Marketing Communications, Morgan Stanley, Acadian Asset, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Collection, Aetna Corp. Collection and Private Collections. Okumura has relationships with galleries in Manhattan, Westport, Boston, Charleston and exhibited in Swiss Art Expo ZÜRICH, Art Metropole Europe Barcelona, Spain, and upcoming Artexpo New York Art Fair, Pier 36 in 2021.
Mel Taing is a Boston-based Cambodian American photographer. She received her BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design in 2016. Mel creates portraiture that expresses the beauty of resilience. Her personal aesthetic is rooted in creating colorful environments that are filmatic, dreamy, and slightly surreal. As a child of Cambodian refugees in America, Mel is deeply interested in visually exploring concepts of intergenerational trauma, racial identity, spirituality, and resilience in community. Mel has exhibited her photography in Brooklyn, NY, Boston, MA and Lowell, MA. Outside of creative portraiture, Mel is a freelance photographer documenting exhibitions and events at museum institutions and is an Artist in Community Fellow at Arts Connect International.
About the Curator:
Leslie Anne Condon is a Boston-area multidisciplinary artist and independent curator, interested in Critical Race Art History and issues of representation within the arts. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in English and a minor in the Fine Arts. She briefly attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts as a Diploma student and earned her Post Baccalaureate in Fine Art 3D from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2011.
About the partner:
Unbound Visual Arts (UVA) is a unique Allston-Brighton-based non-profit art organization. We serve the Greater Boston community with impactful educational programs and exhibits to encourage learning, engagement, and change.
Contact: Leslie Condon, 617-863-9080 x 2017