Shorn Desire: 이국적임과 남성 취약성
This exhibition was an examination of the onerous baggage of Asian-Western international relationships. It was a three-part installation which unearthed an uncomfortable history of male sexual aggression and imperialistic attitudes tangled tightly together. As Edward Said maintains, “Orientalism” is less about Asia and more about the Western effort to self-define; similarly, this exhibition proposed that the exoticization of Asian women is less about her and more about his search for a secure masculinity.
The main part of the exhibition is a large interactive installation. Viewers are asked to to place stones in any of three buckets, causing the gradual cutting of canvas.
Ropes and pulleys connect the buckets to three blades in the rear of the canvas.
The composition depicts a cartoon of dubious courtship. Light red circle indicate the three areas the blades will cut from which viewers can choose: the outstretched hand, the words, or the man's face. The meaning of each cut's location is left for the participant's to consider.
Here is a rear view of the canvas.
One of the three buckets and the adjacent piles of stones.
On the wall directly next to the interactive exhibition are several quotes which frames the topic historically and academically.
Finally, a series of images and video showcase the persistence and inescapability of racist hypermasculinity in contemporary culture.