visual art exhibition: bi-cultural

september 2018 - may 2020

As a Vietnamese American, I am sitting at the crossroads of identity, tying the past with the present. For the past two years, I have focused on the theme of identity and multiculturalism. In my body of work, I explore how storytelling can be a vehicle to understanding oneself especially in a time of crisis.

Growing up, I spent most of my early childhood attending schools that did not have a diverse student or teacher body. I was confused up until my 2nd-grade year; I identified with the white students in my class and I didn’t understand that I looked different because internally, I was American just like them. When I entered high school, the student body was much more diverse, and I was able to connect with my culture and be immersed in other cultures like I couldn’t before.

In the current pandemic, I define resilience as still proudly claiming our identities even as ones that lie in the intersection of intertwining cultures and roots. With my art pieces, I intended to visually translate my experiences and portray my reflections and search for identity for the viewer to observe.

Bi-cultural


In my self-portrait, Vietnam is on the left and America on the right. I straddle the middle, in the intersection between two cultural backgrounds. The mixing of the colors from both sides visually demonstrates how my life is integrated. My intention was to express how I am not conflicted - how I do not leave my Vietnamese heritage at the school’s door nor do I avoid using English at home. I choose to embrace both sides of my cultural identity.

Irises


What began as a study of eyes morphed into a series of blocks, roughly half serving as mini self-portraits. Two blocks portray me in traditional Japanese dress, two reference art history, and the remainder is the result of my peering deeply into the mirror. The folded hands at the bottom serve to anchor the painted features stacked on top. Each block is unfinished without the others, as how each aspect of my multicultural experience being Vietnamese American is unfinished without the other parts.

Is Anyone Here: The Memory of Echo


Inspired by the story of Narcissus and Dali’s Metamorphosis, I created this composition of the beautiful rejected Echo gazing at her reflection. A face faintly shows through her figure symbolizing from whence she has come. Echo’s reflection in the water is solid, representing how her past manifests into her present. The Vietnamese goddess, Quán Thế Âm, is in the background, who protectively comforts the nymph in her moment of unrequited love.

Girl with a Bird


Leonardo’s Renaissance figure fascinated me, so I decided to join the ranks of artists immemorial who have learned by copying the masters. My interpretation became a self-portrait and I imagined myself as the lady. I maintain the same pose as the original including her far-off gaze and hint of a smile, but chose to switch out the ermine for a Southeast Asian bird. In my rendition, I place myself in the romanticized Western setting still holding firmly onto my cultural roots, symbolized by a bird.

Keep Your Hands to Yourself


This is a self-portrait with hands holding the mirror and touching the face, highlighting the xenophobia against the Asian community presently. There is a face beneath the other influenced by Dain Yoon, a Korean makeup artist, to show the internal struggle between how Asian Americans choose to identify currently. The eyes looking back at the mirror reflect the coronavirus where the back of the girl’s head should have been; people see the mirror instead of what is there—an innocent person.