Oct. 17th-Nov. 15th, 2019: Rumors of Necessity Asianix, Tipton Gallery, ETSU, Johnson City, TN, Curated by Alejandro Acierto
Artists: Paul Pak-hing Lee, Richard A. Lou, Hong-An Truong, Emily Hanako Momohara, Sisavanh Phouthavong
Artists: Paul Pak-hing Lee, Richard A. Lou, Hong-An Truong, Emily Hanako Momohara, Sisavanh Phouthavong
Curatorial Statement: I am drawn to positioning Asian and Asian American bodies in relation to conditions of surveillance, militarization, and exclusion in an era of ongoing wars along the US border and abroad. Hinged on the notion of the rumor where contemporary anxieties around difference have often been the result of mis-information, this exhibition draws on contemporary Asian and Asian American artists in the Southern United States and the TN State archive to articulate strategies of the state to enact corporeal control through militarization and exclusion. Foregrounding our contemporary moment where racial profiling Muslim and Latinx communities continue as an ongoing trope of 45's administration, further propelled by broader social anxieties that have amplified white supremacist ideologies, this exhibition works to present alternative forms of embodiment that speak back to historical traumas of militarization and exclusion.