Artist Lecture with Tiffany Chung | Remapping Histories: Wars, Embattled Sites, and Forced Migration
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, USA | 9 January 2020
Tiffany Chung combines cartography with rigorous academic research and ethnographic fieldwork in creating her visually arresting map-based drawings and embroidered works. In them, she depicts the impacts of migration, conflict, and shifting borders in the wake of political upheavals and natural disasters. Over time, her focus has expanded from the South Vietnamese exodus following the civil war in her native country to the current migration of Syrians and Guatemalans in response to war and violence in their home countries. An internationally active artist, Chung has participated in more than 100 exhibitions and biennials on five continents.
The artist’s large-scale work “Reconstructing an Exodus History: Flight routes from camps and of ODP cases” is featured in the special exhibition “Artists Reflect: Contemporary Views on the American War.” The 12-foot-long world map, with escape routes meticulously embroidered in scarlet thread on a navy blue background, shows the paths of forced migration of Vietnamese people from refugee camps in Asia to worldwide locations 35 years ago.
Interweaving ordinary people’s memories with official accounts and international policies, Chung’s lecture performance will incorporate her poetic writing in examining the intersection of her artistic practice and academic discourse.