This installation was a love letter to Asian Americans and a reflection on the journeys of awakening we all walk as we revisit and find new meaning in long-held memories, quiet moments and family histories.
Installation view of "Very Asian Feelings" including canvas reliefs, poetry, a mural and tapestry.
Installation view of "Snack", a piece meant to probe the complex dualities of the Asian American experience. The innocence of an exuberant joy in finding community in shared childhood foods as well as the sinister hyper-sexualization and silencing of Asian American women as a direct consequence of American imperialism in Southeast Asia.
Detail of "Snack". Amidst the cheerful, bright packaging of Asian snacks lies something sinister—yogurt sticks evoke white fingers that take, tape over a mouth silences, a Hello Kitty plushie is robbed of innocence. The tastes of imperialism, leaving bruises, camouflaged as flattery.
This tapestry drew inspiration from the artist's childhood growing up in her father's Thai restaurants. To honor the toil and sacrifice that immigrant parents often make for their children, Phingbodhipakkiya collected rice bags from Asian American mom and pop shops across the country and wove them together with love, joy and color. AAPI communities are too often ignored and pushed to the sidelines, and this work asserts Asian American belonging, as the artifacts of community-building make up the very fabric of this country.
Detail of "Taut". Rough edges, cobbled together rice bags, Indonesian batiks, Thai brocade, held together by tape, cord, string, whatever was available, embody the rough-hewn vision and imperfect but nurturing life the artist's parents created together as Thai and Indonesian immigrants in a strange land.
Installation view of "Very Asian Feelings"
Objects of "Inheritance" that remind the artist of both the legacy and debt she carries. Habits of frugality juxtaposed with fancy privileges. A Danish cookie tin that holds everything except for cookies. Wrapped remote controls so they last longer. The legacy of traditional Thai and Indonesian foods, artifacts, books. The debt and privilege of getting an Ivy League education, of ballet camps and engaging in other expensive extracurriculars while her parents worked long hours to enable her achievement. These objects hold the guilt, pride, and tenderness of her Asian American experience.
Installation view of "Homework" a meditation on the battles we must take on as Asian Americans—fighting to expand the narrow paths society often foists upon us or the patriarchy we must challenge, even in our own homes. Created from mop heads and strips of the artist's math and reading homework from childhood, the piece evokes a many-tentacled monster or vortex threatening to engulf the viewer, just as many Asian Americans feel overwhelmed by societal expectations, family dynamics and the hardships of their own self-discovery.
Detail of "Homework", constructed from mop heads and the artist's own math and reading homework from childhood. This piece honors the complexities of growing up as the child of immigrants and the weight, trauma and power of finding one's way in a society that does not always respect the voices of women of color.
Installation view of "Refuse", which lays bare the struggle, toil and sacrifice of Asian immigrants to the United States, especially those who have limited options for survival. Those vulnerable populations are often the most impacted by anti-Asian hate crimes. So many elders who collect cans have been viciously attacked, and in response we must refuse to be silent.
Detail of "Refuse". Crushed cans and other refuse evoke the violence perpetrated on Asian elders. Hanging threads depict a deep sorrow and the fraying of the fabric of our communities, where we can no longer see beyond our own trauma and must inflect pain on others as a result.
Installation view of hand-painted mural "Find Hope Here". The work was created in early 2022 as more details emerged about Christina Yuna Lee’s horrific murder in NYC's Chinatown, less than a month after Michelle Go’s murder in Times Square, amidst the continued violence and brutality against Asian American elders, almost a year since the Atlanta shooting. I’m so filled with sadness and exhaustion. The work was meant to be a balm for our grief, a reminder that we can find hope if we just look, in all the allies who stand with us, in the leaders and community orgs advocating for public health strategies, in how we care for each other.
Installation view of the four canvas reliefs in "Very Asian Feelings"
Installation view of "Seeds". An exploration of the joys and traumas that make up the artist's Asian American identity. Moments from childhood, layered over Thai and Chinese newspapers collected from Asian Americans around the country, fragments of rice bags, Indonesian batiks, Thai brocades, receipts, money, a green card, passport. This piece reckons with the United States' painful past for many immigrant communities and declares: We belong here. This is America. We are American.
Detail view of "Seeds". Including the cuts and bruises of imperialism and racism on golden fragments, images from childhood, layered over Thai and Chinese newspapers collected from Asian Americans around the country, fragments of rice bags, Indonesian batiks, Thai brocades, receipts, money, a green card, passport. These fragments are positioned almost constellation-like, the pieces of a life, a complex, messy, layered, human existence bursting with color, depth and richness.