Screening | What Are Your Names, Asia(n)?

When

Tuesday December 5, 2023: 6:30pm to 7:00pm  Add to Calendar /   Add to Google Calendar

Where

Downtown Library: 1st Floor Lobby

Description

What Are Your Names, Asia(n)? questions the ambiguities and oversimplifications of the word 'Asia(n),' as used in North American publications, and hails the silenced names of the agencies behind this term. In the video, the artist runs her hands over five books titled "Asia," or "Asian," then softly lays her head on each book. She whispers and writes the names of distinct characters, food ingredients, regions, and artworks on the book titles. This attentive and somehow helpless performance—due to its impossibility to alter the title and hear her voice clearly—invites viewers to reflect on the history of Western literature, where Asia(n) is presumed to be a single obscure entity, both geographically and culturally. Through the work, the artist calls attention to those beings whose unique characteristics and names are forgotten and diminished under a generic construct of Asia(n). These tender gestures serve as one Asian’s loving words to another, devoting her utmost effort towards a goal that is futile in nature.

Okyoung Noh (b. Seoul, KR) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher working with multimedia installation, performance, and social practice. Noh's intersectional practice visualizes and questions the violence that is witnessed by displaced Asian female migrants' bodies. Her works have been presented internationally at the Ann Arbor Art Center (MI), Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (GA), Duderstadt Center (MI), Hangaram Museum (KR), Seoul Artist's Platform_New & Young (KR), and many others. She has been honored with the Chunman Art Award (KR) and nominated as an Elsie Choy Lee Scholar by CEW+, a Young Korean Artist by CICA Museum, and a New Artist from Boomer Gallery, among others.

Screenings of this work on AADL's lobby gallery screen will be held on Sunday December 3rd, 1:30-2:00pm, Monday, December 4th, 6:00-6:30pm and Tuesday December 5th, 6:30-7:00pm in the lobby of the Downtown Library.

A screening and Q&A presentation with the artist will take place in the lobby of the Downtown Library on December 6th.