Artist 160
Monyee Chau
Cultural Assimilation
Asian Diaspora
Monyee Chau is a queer Chinese-American artist based in Seattle, America.
As an Asian-American artist her practice is a journey of healing, which is one of love and understanding the relationships one has with our ancestors.
Her art is her way of exploring and appreciating the labor of love that runs through the generations, and how that guides her in the art she creates.
“My ancestors had brought us here to enjoy the privilege of opportunity, and to share what makes my culture special, rich, and unique.” Monyee Chau elaborates, “I illustrate the strange inbetween land of the Asian American experience, its diaspora, and what it was like growing up Chinese in a white society. This story is not about experiencing a split identity between the two cultures, it’s about defining a new one.”
She works on the various aspects using tools like self portraiture to explore the new identity of Asian Americans. She looks at how it is influenced by their heritage and by westernized culture and draws questions through culturally important days and traditions.
In her own words, “This eurocentric society was what made me feel ashamed of my cultural background when I was younger; now our history, stories, and language are aestheticized and fetishized.
My work is about decolonization; to take the reins back in telling the story of my family and my experiences, and to unapologetically take up the space back from surface level expressions that were created to try and exploit a culture that this society had whitewashed in the first place.”
Sources Consulted:
https://www.mostprominent.co/…/art-healing-cultural-assimil…
https://www.chinesebornamerican.com/
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