Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes

Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes chronicles the blossoming of Asian American art and anticipates the growing democratization of American art and culture. Pairing work by twenty-four contemporary Asian American visual artists with responses provocatively drawn from cultural critics, other artists, activists, and intellectuals, this book explores themes of geographical movement, the sexuality of Asian bodies, colonization, miscegenation, hybrid forms of immigrant cultures, the loss of home, war, history, and memory.

Elaine H. Kim's historical introduction charts the trajectory of Asian American art from the nineteenth century to the present, offering a comprehensive account of artists, major artworks, and major events. Commentaries by writers, artists, and cultural activists examine the work of visual artists such as Pacita Abad, Albert Chong, Y. David Chung, Allan deSouza, Michael Joo, Hung Liu, Yong Soon Min, Manuel Ocampo, PipoNguyen-Duy, Roger Shimomura, Carlos Villa, and Martin Wong. Prominent artists and critics such as Homi K. Bhabha, Luis Camnitzer, Enrique Chagoya, Gina Dent, Ellen Gallagher, Arturo Lindsay, Kobena Mercer, Griselda Pollock, Jolene Rickard, Faith Ringgold, Ella Shohat, Lowery Stokes Sims, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie offer thought-provoking reflections on each artist. Sharon Mizota's extended captions further elucidate the paintings, graphics, photography, installations, and mixed-media constructions under discussion.

As a set of dialogues, simultaneously visual and textualFresh Talk/Daring Gazes encourages the cross-cultural conversation that is shaping the emerging art of Asian Americans and of the United States in general. Alternately personal, intellectual, aesthetic, and political, these essays and the art they consider provide unique perspectives on both the past and the future of American art.

Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes chronicles the blossoming of Asian American art and anticipates the growing democratization of American art and culture. Pairing work by twenty-four contemporary Asian American visual artists with responses provocatively drawn from cultural critics, other artists, activists, and intellectuals, this book explores themes of geographical movement, the sexuality of Asian bodies, colonization, miscegenation, hybrid forms of immigrant cultures, the loss of home, war, history, and memory.

Elaine H. Kim's historical introduction charts the trajectory of Asian American art from the nineteenth century to the present, offering a comprehensive account of artists, major artworks, and major events. Commentaries by writers, artists, and cultural activists examine the work of visual artists such as Pacita Abad, Albert Chong, Y. David Chung, Allan deSouza, Michael Joo, Hung Liu, Yong Soon Min, Manuel Ocampo, PipoNguyen-Duy, Roger Shimomura, Carlos Villa, and Martin Wong. Prominent artists and critics such as Homi K. Bhabha, Luis Camnitzer, Enrique Chagoya, Gina Dent, Ellen Gallagher, Arturo Lindsay, Kobena Mercer, Griselda Pollock, Jolene Rickard, Faith Ringgold, Ella Shohat, Lowery Stokes Sims, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie offer thought-provoking reflections on each artist. Sharon Mizota's extended captions further elucidate the paintings, graphics, photography, installations, and mixed-media constructions under discussion.

As a set of dialogues, simultaneously visual and textualFresh Talk/Daring Gazes encourages the cross-cultural conversation that is shaping the emerging art of Asian Americans and of the United States in general. Alternately personal, intellectual, aesthetic, and political, these essays and the art they consider provide unique perspectives on both the past and the future of American art.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface: Visual Art and the Imagining of Asian America—An Editorial View
Margo Machida
Foreword: Out of the West—Asian Migration and Modernity
Lisa Lowe
Introduction
Interstitial Subjects—Asian American Visual Art as a Site for New Cultural Conversations
Elaine H. Kim
Gallery
with plate commentaries by Sharon Mizota

INTERCHANGES
with figure commentaries by Sharon Mizota
Pacita Abad: A Woman of Color
Faith Ringgold
Kristine Yuki Aono: Installing Memories
Deborah Willis
Tomie Arai: Ties That Wrap around the World
Jolene Rickard
Sung Ho Choi: Suitcase of Memories
Suk-Man Kim
Albert Chong: "It’s Complex"
Arturo Lindsay
Ken Chu: You Don’t See Yourself
Robert Vazquez-Pacheco
Y. David Chung: Sponge
Rick Lowe
Allan deSouza: Let’s Get Lost
Kobena Mercer
Michael Joo: A Rock and a Hard Place
Gina Dent
Jin Soo Kim: Primal Energy
Lowery Stokes Sims
Hung Liu: Odalisque
Griselda Pollock
Yong Soon Min: Defining Moments
Luis Camnitzer
Long Nguyen: Flesh of the Inscrutable
Laura Elisa Perez
Manuel Ocampo: Apocalypse Now
Enrique Chagoya
Hanh Thi Pham: Contemplating Expatriate Consciousness #9
Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie
Pipo Nguyen-Duy: The Thin Line between Tragedy and Beauty
Odili Donald Odita
Roger Shimomura: Sansei Samurai
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Shahzia Sikander: A Happy Dislocation
Homi K. Bhabha
Do-Ho Suh: Place as an Infinite Ritual
Ellen Gallagher
Mitsuo Toshida: Transmigration and the Double Nation
Bert Winther-Tamaki
Carlos Villa: The Common Cape
Amalia Mesa-Bains
Martin Wong: Chino Malo
Yasmin Ramirez
Lynne Yamamoto: Reflections on Hair and Memory Loss
Ella Shohat
Zarina: Embodiments of Home/Imprints of Existence
Theresa Harlan

Notes
Artists’ Biographies
Notes on Commentators
Index