What is it about?

In this Q&A, Asian American artists Laura Kina and Việt Lê discuss three shared central themes in their work: Transnationalism, Pop, and Gender/Sexuality. Kina and Lê's works were on view in two paired solo exhibitions (Kina's "Uchinanchu" and Lê's "lovebang! Trilogy Premiere"), that were part of "Transnational Lives in Motion: The Art of Laura Kina and Việt Lê" at the W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, US February 27–April 23, 2016. The exhibition was curated by Mary Yu Danico (the Weglyn Endowed Chair of Multicultural Studies) and Michele Cairella Fillmore (Director of the Kellogg University Art Gallery).

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Why is it important?

The artwork of Laura Kina and Việt Lê offers nuanced experiences of Asian American transnational lives, as co-curator Mary Yu Danico stated, “From refugee, immigrant, war, and identity issues, both of your works examine the unexpected outcomes of migration and hybrid encounters.”

Perspectives

Việt Lê and I have been working together for several years as reviews editors for the Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas and his work is included in my co-edited anthology "Queering Contemporary Asian American Art" (University of Washington Press, 2017). "Transnational Lives in Motion" was the first time we showed are artwork together. As we state in our Q&A, we realized that despite our work initially looking quite different, "we both share pop sensibilities. We call this an 'aesthetic of excess,' which blurs the lines between 'high' fine art and 'low' popular cultures, the flamboyant and mundane, and embraces colour, spectacle, and decorative impulses. We also both chart communal identities, disidentifications, and history as subjects with ties to Asia, America, and in-between."

Professor Laura Kina
DePaul University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Towards an Aesthetic of Excess: A Conversation with Laura Kina and Việt Lê, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas, September 2016, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/23523085-00203011.
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