| Recent anthologies such as Marianne
Hirsch's The Familial Gaze position the family as central to much
artistic inspiration and image making. Many artists such as Carrie
Mae Weems, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Sally Mann use their families
as subject matter in order to revisit their childhood histories
or to investigate the taboos, dynamics, and triumphs of consanguine
relationships. Artist’s investigations of identity are informed
by this familial reckoning. Identity and artistic inspiration
are exactly what Jessica Hyzer and Joseph Hu are searching for
in their works presented this month at the University City Arts
League. Hyzer’s "Family Art Project", part of her
recent MFA Thesis at the Academy, presents small-scale sculptures
that she sent to her parents over several months and her parents’
written responses to these works. This conceptual project is cleverly
presented on a long dining room table. Hu’s paintings, also
part of his Academy MFA Thesis, consist of bleached white tables
on monochromatic green fields of color. The tables are mysteriously
set with ambiguous and faded dishes and containers, some of which
appear only in silhouette or as blobs of white paint.
Hyzer claims that working in conjunction with her family sparked
new life into her art. Her parents’ varied responses to the
sculptures are indicative of the prescribed roles of "mother"
and "father." In several examples, the mother alters
or augments the works. A small doll without clothes or arms is
rectified by Hyzer’s mother and given complete limbs and
warm, knit clothing. In another example, Hyzer sent her parents
an empty box. Her mother completes the work by making a wooden,
square sculpture meant to fill that vacancy. In this way, the
mother fulfills her role as caretaker. Not content to let small
dolls go naked, or perfectly good boxes go empty, Hyzer’s
mother provides the filler and the defenses that one needs to
survive in the world – just as mother’s are supposed
to do. The project highlights ideas about the essential list roles
that people adopt when called upon to do so. Hyzer’s "Family
Art Project" also speaks to how the family can impart wisdom,
and how revisiting the family can be inspiring for artists. The
project suggests that autobiography can be central to art making.
Hu’s white tables
are an icon symbolizing the loss of the clan and the impossibility
of regaining the comfort or traditions of home. Hu states that
his work is an attempt to balance his Chinese heritage with his
suburban American upbringing. The paintings focus on the site
of the table as indicator of family and tradition – a site
where one’s ethnicity is served up on every platter. Chinese
banquets embrace some of the most elaborate culinary etiquette.
Rules abound about what constitutes proper conversation; the customs
and celebrations of banquets are entrenched in Chinese culture.
It is in this tradition that Hu attempts to make an inroad into
understanding more about his Chinese parents, and the legacy of
his ancestors. Unlike a large banquet prepared for scores of family
members, Hu’s tables are set with only one chair and a spread
of ghostly and indecipherable dishes. Presumably, Hu must eat
this meal alone, making it all the more impossible to regain the
folklore and culture that he so craves. Each item on Hu’s
white, silhouetted tables are unknowable and mysterious; the details
are fuzzy. This faded quality and the paintings' layered green
glaze are metaphor for the film of soot that collects on our memory
of the past, or in the case of Hu, his memory of sitting down
to dine with his family. Hu’s tables are like gems he’s
dug up in his quest for his ethnic identity – archaeological
finds that glow through the layers of dust that can never be completely
brushed away. His work comments on the eventual acculturation
of all ethnic groups in the US – ultimately, the details
will start to fade.
- © Jennifer Zarro, 2001 |
