Recent Thoughts
2020-2021
This set of work provides a personal, emotionally related narrative walking the audience through the most recent anti-Asian hate crimes happening in the United States due to COVID-19, however, the issues have been rooted since the beginning of immigration. The purpose of exhibiting and voicing out injustice with a strong stand through the power of art is not condemn. Smile's understanding of love is what led her to create art; her work offers a narrative and photographic exploration of love through observations of human interactions, emotions, and social events.
First try: The Only Virus Present is Your Racism
‘This work expresses my feelings to xenophobia relating to the corona virus. I finished this work in the beginning of march, when virus starting to hit the United States. Hostility behaviors towards other people because of their racial identity can tear our humanity apart. Being racially Asian, I was hurt and attacked by some strangers and some people around me. Emotions gathered and inspired me to create this project. I want to express the importance to love and care for each other at this unexpected time, and the lack of attention we are giving to the world as global citizens.’
‘The Only Virus Present is your Racism’ by Xiao Ma for Bennington College Mother-tongue Magazine Spring 2020 publication.
April 18th, 2021
Recent Thoughts 1
Another publishing on Mother-tongue Magazine
Further More
Recent Thoughts 2
Basin Arts, Lafayette, Louisiana
Post recent/After Thoughts
After the first round exhibition in April, I received a lot of feedback, then multiple other things happened. I went between the question of what’s reality and what’s conceptual again. Planning on the road trip, driving down from Vermont, bringing down all these posters, seeing them crashed, smudged, folded, unfolded, slowly got lost at the bottom of the car seat. They are just pieces of paper after all, the fragility of materials is real. Practicality resembles parts of reality, the reality is roadtrip is hard, planning is annoying, and what’s harder is the uncertainty of being in such limbo space. I got into an accident a few days ago, my car was totaled, the posters are still here, safe and sound. Reality doesn't teach us to prioritize the value of non-profited works. However, exhibitions are just like road tripping, hard to plan, and the liminal space is scary.Even though not everyone will understand, every exhibition comes with unexpected results, I once heard something very important from a documentary: art is not the object that’s presented, instead, art happens between the audiences and the work itself.
Make art an action word, de-capitalize it, make it touchable, make it public, make it personal, make the vulnerability real and beautiful.
Thank you for reading,
Xiao Ma
July 26, 2021
