“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these \u27advertisements\u27 contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power

hill, sophia

English

DigitalCommons@Macalester College

Macalester CollegeDigitalCommons@Macalester CollegeArt and Art History Honors Projects Art DepartmentSpring 4-25-2018How to be the Perfect Asian Wife!sophia hillMacalester College, sophia.songmih@gmail.comFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/art_honorsPart of the Art Education Commons, Art Practice Commons, Asian American StudiesCommons, Asian Art and Architecture Commons, Asian History Commons, Asian StudiesCommons, Business and Corporate Communications Commons, Business Law, PublicResponsibility, and Ethics Commons, Child Psychology Commons, Children's and Young AdultLiterature Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Civic and Community Engagement Commons,Community-Based Learning Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Contemporary ArtCommons, Dance Commons, Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence Commons, Ethnic StudiesCommons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Fashion Business Commons, Fiber, Textile,and Weaving Arts Commons, Fiction Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Food Processing Commons,Gender and Sexuality Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in CommunicationCommons, Humane Education Commons, Illustration Commons, Inequality and StratificationCommons, Interactive Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Internationaland Community Nutrition Commons, Korean Studies Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, andTransgender Studies Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, andSexuality Studies Commons, Pain Management Commons, Painting Commons, Peace and ConflictStudies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons,Photography Commons, Poetry Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Race andEthnicity Commons, Reading and Language Commons, Rhetoric Commons, Sculpture Commons,Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons,Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Social Media Commons, SocialPsychology and Interaction Commons, Social Welfare Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons,Theory and Criticism Commons, Transpersonal Psychology Commons, Visual Studies Commons,Women's History Commons, and the Women's Studies CommonsThis Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Art Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been acceptedfor inclusion in Art and Art History Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information,please contact scholarpub@macalester.edu.Recommended Citationhill, sophia, "How to be the Perfect Asian Wife!" (2018). Art and Art History Honors Projects. 6.http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/art_honors/6“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife!”Sophia Songmi HillAdvisor: Ruthann GodolleiProject Duration:  2017-2018Artist Statement“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways.  Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation to reflect oppressive strategies used to contain womxn of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these ‘advertisements’ contrast with an interac-tive rice bag filled with comics addressing my everyday life.  Each ‘advertisement’ is paired with a text that chastises, criticizes, and instructs an Asian wife that isn’t “perfect” yet.  The constant reference to a “Husband” is a direct critique of the violent and pervasive patriar-chy.  The instructions, and more honestly, the gaslighting of the text, reflect the messages I continue to experience as a female bodied womxn of color. Initially, I wanted to make work about how I felt I wasn’t Asian enough.  As a mixed race Asian-American, I have struggled with belonging to an Asian identity and the standards of beauty in both my Korean and Chinese heritages. Stuffing my head into a rice cooker, desperately trying to fill my blood with more essences of Asian culture through kimchi would serve as allusions to my cultural anxieties.  Then I realized, like most pervasive belief systems and social norms, these anxieties tied to a larger culture of violence and ex-ploitation of female bodies of color.  Violent patriarchy lives at the dinner table with family, exists in classroom teachings, and rests in my own eyes that reflect back to me when I gaze in the mirror.  It was so easy for me to parrot the violent messaging that have followed my body through advertisement, community, and cultural ‘values’.  And to associate kimchi, and rice with such perverse hyperboles of advertisement language, I connect cultural cuisine to the ingestion of self policing and internalized self-loathing practices.   It is intentionally ambiguous whether the figure in the drawing is swallowing the abuse or actively resisting it.  The text is constantly admonishing the figure for “going too far”, “nagging”, “asking too many questions”, and “never sweetening (their) tongue”.  Through this shaming, it is clear that the figure’s defiance and resistance is also relentless.  With each new text accompanying the ‘advertisement’, we can imagine the figure deviating from the new expectations forced upon them. Formal elements of the work also convey the figure’s resistance.  A closer look at the texture of the skin and hair, there is a consistent undercurrent of agitated mark making. The paper is warping, the marks fly off the page, and the charcoal seems unconcerned with the presence of wet media.  The figure is not constrained by the boundaries of the paper, instead they hold the space.  With flexed muscles and intense presence, the figure captures and firmly holds the viewers gaze to witness these violent and absurd “advertisements”. The process behind these ‘advertisements’ also embody resistance and intentionality.  The drawings are based off reference photos directed, modelled for, and edited by me.  Down to the conception and detailed execution, these ‘advertisements’ were produced by me - an Asian-American womxn of color. Creating the three large drawings felt like I was simultaneously mutilating another womxn of color and providing them with channels of escape.  To physically strengthen the figure’s agency, the ‘advertisements’ were created in laborious layers.  I realistically rendered the charcoal figure, then applied hundreds of layers of watercolor to achieve deep vibrance, and finally applied ink hair one strand at a time until I achieved abundance and strength.  I put intensive time towards the creation of the figure to pay respect to the female body I was using to reflect violent realities. The Rice Bag installation is a counterpoint of healing to the macabre “advertisements”. Each grain of “rice” is a small comic that I drew by hand.  They are quick documentations of my everyday experience.  They are small truths.  The reason it is titled “With Every Grain of Rice” is because I believe that the journey through self love and healing from violent realities is continuous.  Each time I give weight to my life, and recognize moments that may seem ordinary as extraordinary, the exploitative systems that wish to see me eliminated cannot touch me.Artist Statement (Continued)“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife!”Three Drawings and Three Accompanying Texts  Kimchi Prenatal RegimentCharcoal, Watercolor, Ink on Paper( 49 x 34 in. )Kimchi Prenatal Regiment (Text)Ink on Paper( 15.2 x 22 in. )Uterus Plug-inCharcoal, Watercolor, Gouache, Ink on Paper( 48.5 x 36.5 in. )Uterus Plug-in (Text)Ink on Paper( 15.2 x 22 in. )Rice Cooker MakeoverCharcoal, Watercolor, Gouache, Ink on Paper( 48.25 x 37  in. )Rice Cooker Makeover (Text)Ink on Paper( 15.2 x 22 in. )“With Every Grain of Rice”Installation Piece “With Every Grain of Rice”Artist Statement (This artist statement was placed on the table as part of the installation piece.)  Horrific media messaging and essentialization of womxn of color bodies continues to be more and more personal and pervasive. “Healing” and “self-care” continue to be co-opted and manipulated as forms of gaslight-ing in service of a capitalist regime. But I don’t care.I will continue searching and dreaming of a reality where I am living without fear.Inside this rice bag are white cards with illustrations and text.  These white cards are meant to symbolize grains of rice. Each are hand drawn. Each come from my daily experience.Each rice kernel is different. Each are precious.  Handle them with respect and care.  And then put them back how you found them.It will take time. So please take the time or come back. You won’t be able to consume them.  You may not be able to relate.Our experiences are so different.  And that’s ok. I found hope and healing by documenting truths I know to be real. Feel free to take pictures of rice kernels that you connected with.Post them, send them to your friends...All I ask is that you credit me @songmi_x or Sophia Songmi and don’t sell them for personal gain. That defeats the point. Feel free to email or dm me the illustration that spoke to you and attach the memory/story you experienced upon viewing it. Good luck on your journey to self love. “With Every Grain of Rice”(Continued) The installation piece had 156 comics in total.  These were stored inside the tupperware containers and housed in the rice bag. Due to printing constraints, I have only included a few of the many comics. A future project I have in mind is to create thousands of these comics and fill many ricebags. This will overflow the space with my resistance and hope for a better future. To the courageous and wonderful students of color who may be reading this: I believe in you and I will continue the fight for your//our future.With Every Grain of RiceStore Bought Rice Bag, Ink, Cut Paper, Tupperware on Found table(Table: 24 x 32 x 15.5 in.; Rice Bag with 2 Containers inside: 8 x 13 x 5 in.; Large Tupperware: 9 x 7 x 3 in. )With Every Grain of RiceTheme 1: Self  Talk Ink on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 1: Self  Talk Ink on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 2:  Talking Back Ink on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 2:  Talking Back Ink on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 3:  When Words Aren’t Needed Ink on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 3:  When Words Aren’t Needed Ink on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 4:  When Only Words Are LeftInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 4:  When Only Words Are LeftInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 5:  Healing from the PatriarchyInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 5:  Healing from the PatriarchyInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 6:  DailyInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 6:  DailyInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 7:  Just TruthsInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 7:  Just TruthsInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 8:  FamilyInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)With Every Grain of RiceTheme 8:  FamilyInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)AcknowledgementsI would like to respectfully thank the following people for making this project possible.Thank you Haruna, Obiele, Dominique, Petersan, Mama, Grandma Chin, Lizzette, Ruthann G, Stan, Vin, Kristi, Chris, Dr. Kari, Tori, and Donna.Thank you to all my ancestors and mentors from afar for dreaming up and fighting for a reality forged from your imagination. With Every Grain of RiceTheme 8:  FamilyInk on Paper(5 x 5 in.)

How to be the Perfect Asian Wife!

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How to be the Perfect Asian Wife!

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