I almost skipped the art convocation today to work on my New Testament paper that was due this afternoon. But I told myself it would be a rewarding experience, and when I got to the Buetow, I was glad that I had worked hard to finish my paper early. All of the art was so beautiful and so emotional. It was cool to walk around and try to interpret each piece, but I loved when the artists explained to us what they meant for the artwork to convey. I thought that it was really cool when Hend al-Mansour told us about her photographs. To hear her talk of the blending of cultures in such a positive way was somewhat refreshing.
I loved the painting called "Mekong Tears." It made me think immediately of Kalia Yang and the story she told in The Latehomecomer about her family crossing the Mekong River. The painting portrayed the sort of fear and anxiety that Kalia wrote about. The painting helped me solidify the images in my mind and fit those ideas with the narrative. Another piece that really stood out to me as it relates to our Hmong unit was "Passport to Freedom." It was a photograph edited with some graphic design that depicted a Hmong man in the different stages of his life and the immigration process. This piece caught and held my attention because of the eyes of the subject as a young man. They were sad and strong, and they seemed to stare straight at you. It made me think again about how someone like Professor Lee Pao Xiong felt when he was trying to balance two different cultures in their young adulthood.
I think that this art exhibition opened my eyes to something new, but I haven't quite figured out what it is yet. I mean, it was cool to see art from different immigrant cultures, but I think what I'm feeling is deeper than that. I'll try and untangle this mess of new information over the next few days, and then maybe I'll have something more intelligent to say about it. Maybe it's just that I'm "knowing" through aesthetics and just not recognizing it. In any case, it's something more complicated than I'm used to dealing with, so please bear with me while I muddle through.
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