From the Duke News Service

May 2, 2001

Artwork selected by two Duke University seniors for this year's student-curated exhibition offers a snapshot of cutting-edge, contemporary Asian art even as it challenges aesthetic stereotypes.

The exhibition, titled "Made in Asia?," presents a range of works by artists from Japan, China and Korea. It opened at the Duke University Museum of Art in April and will be on display in the Main Gallery through June 10. The museum is open to the public at no charge.

The presentation is the 12th in an ongoing program that provides Duke undergraduates with a rare educational opportunity and introduces the Triangle to the creations of established and emerging artists. This year's exhibition has been organized by Randi Reiner of Fort Lee, N.J., and Phil Tinari of Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

In keeping with the program, the student curators develop a focus, choose the art, negotiate gallery loans, produce critical essays, work with a catalog designer, install the display and lecture to the public. The students work under the guidance of museum staff and art history scholars, but responsibility for the exhibition and its success rests ultimately with them.

This year's presentation is made up of the works of nine Asian artists who live in the United States, primarily New York City. They are Emiko Kasahara, C.C. Wang, Yukinori Yanagi, Mariko Mori, Do-Ho Suh, Wang Gongxin, Takashi Murakami, Huang Yongping and Kim Soo-ja.

The media employed in the exhibition are diverse, but according to the student curators, all the artists face the same challenge: to produce art in a global economy that expects them to create works that can be pegged as Asian.

"Our aim was to challenge stereotypes associated with Asian art, to redefine it and to show how these artists' perspectives have changed to a certain extent because they no longer live in Asia," Reiner said.

Ironically, Tinari added, today's art market still "expects them to create works that resonate with the nationality in their name."

This tension is felt by some of the artists more than others, and they respond to it in varying ways. Some apparently view themselves as artists first and foremost, while others cling to their culture, the student curators said.

For instance, Japanese artist Kasahara eschews aesthetic elements one might associate with Asia such as calligraphy or traditional silk fabrics in favor of 1,050 samples of nail polish, meticulously labeled and alphabetized on white sheets of paper. The work raises questions about the importance of personalized body art to women in modernity.

Similarly, a piece titled "Border Crossing" by Chinese artist Huang Yongping has no Asian reference and could have been produced by artists from any continent. The work features a pair of tattered leather boots with snake skins trailing from the heels, perhaps suggesting that people, too, can shed their skin.

A few works in the exhibition openly demonstrate cultural influences. Korean artist Kim Soo-ja's "Bottari Bundle" was made using traditional bedcover fabrics from her country. She cuts swatches of bedcovers and sews them together to form bundles (called bottari). They hold a host of traditional meanings, as newborn babies are often wrapped in them, and many Korean women use them to carry their possessions when they leave home, the student curators note.

One of the most striking pieces in the exhibition, titled "Miss KO2," is an anime-like statue produced by Japanese artist Murakami and inspired by his country's near-obsession with cartoon and comic book art.

Miss KO2 is an anatomically incorrect, larger-than-life-sized fiberglass sculpture of a young woman in a tight-fitting waitress uniform. Her large breasts protrude from her outfit, and her tiny waist accentuates her long legs. Murakami has created smaller versions of the statue as well as plastic model kits, further blurring the line between art and popular culture in Japan.

All the artists whose works are featured in the exhibition were trained in their home country, although several went on to receive advanced degrees in the United States. Their work speaks to their transnational experience, said Michael Mezzatesta, museum director. "Essentially, we've passed the moment where it makes sense to view these works as Chinese, Japanese or Korean," he said.

The exhibition has been supported by The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and the Friends of the Art Museum, among other contributors.

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