Minneapolis Institute of Art: The American War: ‘Artists Reflect’ recounts the Vietnam War from the Southeast Asian perspective
Lizzi Ginsberg
Minneapolis, USA | 17 October 2019
Excerpt:
While the work is highly personal, it’s also political — art can change the narrative and narratives can change the power dynamic. Another artist in the show, Vietnamese-born Tiffany Chung, centers her practice around map making. “Maps were introduced by colonial powers to reimagine the places that were being colonized,” says Chung. “I want to think about how we can use maps to subvert that.” Her map places Asia in the center of the frame. (It’s a sentiment echoed in another, unrelated exhibition at Mia: “Mapping Black Identities”).
Chung’s piece, called Reconstructing an exodus history: flight routes from camps and ODP cases, traces dozens of refugee routes from Southeast Asia. It’s painstakingly embroidered to beautiful effect. Chung and Her both talk of using beauty to draw people in, that underneath the beauty is a lot of trauma. “It’s one thing to talk about it but it’s another when your family was directly affected by it,” Chung says.
…But the larger story of war and exodus, that so powerfully shaped the artists in Mia’s show, is still playing out all over the world. “We’re not talking about ideology here, we’re talking about power,” says Chung. “There’s so much work we have to continue to do beyond our own communities.”