8 JULY 28- AUGUST 03, 2022
NEWS
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‘Off Kilter: Power and Pathos’ exhibit on view at USC Pacific Asia Museum “Off Kilter: Power and Pathos,” on view from July 22 to Sept. 4 at USC Pacific Asia Museum (USC PAM), features the works of Sandra Low, Keiko Fukazawa and Kim-Trang Tran. By May S. Ruiz (mayrchu56@gmail.com
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he exhibition is the latest installation in the museum’s effort to provide a place where, through their work, diasporic Asian American artists can examine and address present-day concerns that affect our community. Rebecca Hall, USC PAM’s curator, explains during a press walkthrough of the exhibition, “Those of you who are familiar with what I’ve been doing here as curator know that my ongoing work with contemporary Asian American artists stems from my desire to focus on a very specific part in Asia, to bring it into L.A. and in the current moment — which has changed in the last couple of years — and to engage with the community. This started with an exhibition called ‘We Are Here’ which opened to great fanfare on March 13, 2020 only to be shut down because of the pandemic. Fortuitously, we reopened it last year during AAPI Heritage month. “That exhibition highlighted seven Asian American female artists who lived and worked in Los Angeles. I met both Sandra and Kim-Trang then but I wasn’t able to include their work on that show because of our limited space. I was so impressed with both that I wanted to make sure I brought them into the galleries.It was a bit later that I met Keiko after she displayed a piece in our sister museum, The Fisher Museum of Art. Hall reveals as we approach Low’s displays, “I find Sandra’s work very compelling, but I also find it the most difficult to talk about because it’s so much about being a diasporic Chinese American woman. And I get it, but it’s not my place to talk about that and it’s not my voice that I
Sandra Low, ‘A Very Civil Cheese,’ 2019. Oil on Canvas. | Photo courtesy of the USC Pacific Asia Museum
should be using. “Her ‘Ma Stories’ came from the disconnect she felt as an Asian American growing up in the San Gabriel Valley. She still lives with her mother, who has dementia, and this series records their day-to-day interaction. In fact, these pieces aren’t so much about art than they are about her relationship with her mother.” Indeed, when you look at the drawings and read the verbiage, you can imagine the artist reacting to what her mother did or said. The series — however absurd and comical as the illustrations and captions are — is a child’s homage to a beloved mother. You sense that Low wants to preserve all the memories that her parent has lost. Each display is at once hilarious and heartbreaking. “‘Cheesy Paintings’
pulls from the same experience we see in her ‘Ma Stories.’ Cheese takes on different meanings to Sandra and she plays with
Whiz and Velveeta, to see so many varieties in the grocery store. Her mother’s reaction to the abundance of cheese made a huge
"In ‘Seven Days,’ she selected seven days that had gun deaths and stacked guns; each one has the name and age of the person who died and where it occurred." the contrast of cheese dripping on the landscape,” Hall says. Anyone who has emigrated from Southeast Asia will tell you that dairy products — like milk, butter, and cheese — were rare commodities several decades ago. What a treat it must have been for Low’s mother, who had until then only ever known Cheese
impression and she memorialized that in a fantastically fun way. In “Pandemic Prints,” Low uses household items. Hall relates, “We were all housebound during the pandemic so she used whatever objects were available, like doilies, to create these images and process what was going on; each print takes you to that
moment. This one stands out for me — September 21, 2020: over 200,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S., over 950,000 worldwide. She recorded what happened that day; they are universal and personal at the same time.” Hall describes as we reach Fukazawa’s gallery, “This is Keiko’s ‘Peacemaker’ series. In ‘Seven Days,’ she selected seven days that had gun deaths and stacked guns; each one has the name and age of the person who died and where it occurred. I think this is an important series in the way she visualizes gun violence so that there’s no way we can remain neutral on this issue. Another part of this series shows the guns used in mass shootings with the state flower wrapped around the gun.” One display area is devoted to Fukazawa’s
work with clay and ceramics, and her time in China. For this exhibition, she has a piece called “Hello, Mao” and five “Perception Plates.” Another set of artworks is called “Circle of Friends” – porcelain underglaze with profile images of reviled world leaders past and pres ent. Hall informs that the inspiration for Tran’s display “Movements: Battles and Solidarity” was a book she read about a fashion show in Versailles in 1972 when the American prêt-à-porter competed against the French haute couture collection. “This multi-media display captures that period from 1972 to 1974 but she makes it very relevant. And so she thought about the protest movement in textile factories in three different locations in the U.S. and all involved women. “I feel it’s so empowering and so poignant in the way she portrayed labor, women, representation, and power. There are several layers to this artwork: the image on the left on the screen is embroidered and was made in Vietnam; then there’s a visual on how people treat women’s bodies. I also studied textiles and when I saw this for the first time, I had goosebumps on my arms and tears streaming down my face. I knew we had to have this.” What a blessing it is that Hall has made it her creed to advance the accomplishments of diasporic Asian Americans by ensuring their works are seen and their voices are heard. At a time when the population in Pasadena and Los Angeles is becoming ever more diverse, USC Pacific Asia Museum is leading the way to connect us all.
