
Unsettled Visions: Contemporary Asian American Artists and the Social Imaginary
Margo Machida
Analyses of the work of individual artists are grouped around three major themes that Asian American artists engaged with during the 1990s: representations of the Other; social memory and trauma; and migration, diaspora, and sense of place. Machida considers the work of the photographers Pipo Nguyen-duy and Hanh Thi Pham, the printmaker and sculptor Zarina Hashmi, and installations by the artists Tomie Arai, Ming Fay, and Yong Soon Min. She examines the work of Marlon Fuentes, whose films and photographs play with the stereotyping conventions of visual anthropology, and prints in which Allan deSouza addresses the persistence of Orientalism in American popular culture. Machida reflects on Kristine Aono’s museum installations embodying the multigenerational effects of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and on Y. David Chung’s representations of urban spaces transformed by migration in works ranging from large-scale charcoal drawings to multimedia installations and an “electronic rap opera.”
Product Details
About Margo Machida
Reviews for Unsettled Visions: Contemporary Asian American Artists and the Social Imaginary
Rose M. Kim
Visual Studies
“Machida explains that this book is intended to contribute to a dialogue amongst artists and scholars regarding the issues of art and the Asian American Diaspora. As an academic (Associate Professor of Art History and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut) and an author, she contextualizes herself as an actor in this dialogue, an approach that is quite compelling. This book would be particularly appropriate for upper level discussion seminars on issues relating to historical and critical theory, as well as Asian American art. Machida’s exploration of the issues also provides a starting point for future Asian American exhibitions and food for thought for curatorship in this area.”
Heather Kline
ARLIS/NA Reviews
“Margo Machida’s Unsettled Visions suggests a refreshingly useful way to study ethnicity. . . . This book will appeal to a wide variety of scholars interested in visual, cultural, and spatial practices, Asian American and ethnic studies, visual culture, cultural studies, material culture, performance studies, and architecture.”
Arijit Sen
Journal of American Ethnic History
“This solid and remarkable volume should be essential reading for those interested in critical race theory and visual cultures, and is sure to encourage further study of these artists.”
Alexandra Chang
Woman's Art Journal