Rene Yung's "...nges & disappearances"
Rene Yung's ...nges & disappearances
An Installation about Memory and Displacement Travels the Intermountain West
SALT LAKE ART CENTER
20 South West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT
Tel. 801 328 4201
www.slartcenter.org
Open February 4 - Apr 3, 2005
"...nges & disappearances was commissioned by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum, Idaho, for the traveling exhibition "The Vanishing," exploring the lost history of the 19th century Chinese immigrants to the region. An estimated 15,000 Chinese worked on building the Transcontinental Railroad, and many others worked in the mines of the American West. At the height of the labor boom, Chinese comprised nearly 30% of Idaho Territory's population, yet 'vanished' from the area after the completion of the railroad and the closure of the mines.
"Struck by the paucity of information about the immigrants themselves, Yung focused on memory as a communal and individual process in ...nges & disappearances. 'Memory informs identity. Memory is also the only thing that an immigrant can bring with certainty to a new land,' an immigrant herself, the artist writes in her exhibition statement. 'Yet with time, memory shifts and changes--and so too, the person who remembers.' For the mine- and railroad-workers, the loss of personal memories parallels their erasure from the region¹s communal memory, after they were no longer needed for local industries."
The Vanishing: Re-presenting the American West was organized by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, and in addition to Yung's ...nges & disappearances, includes historical photographs, and paintings by Hung Liu. The exhibition will travel to venues in the Intermountain West, including Prichard Art Gallery at the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.
An Installation about Memory and Displacement Travels the Intermountain West
SALT LAKE ART CENTER
20 South West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT
Tel. 801 328 4201
www.slartcenter.org
Open February 4 - Apr 3, 2005
"...nges & disappearances was commissioned by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum, Idaho, for the traveling exhibition "The Vanishing," exploring the lost history of the 19th century Chinese immigrants to the region. An estimated 15,000 Chinese worked on building the Transcontinental Railroad, and many others worked in the mines of the American West. At the height of the labor boom, Chinese comprised nearly 30% of Idaho Territory's population, yet 'vanished' from the area after the completion of the railroad and the closure of the mines.
"Struck by the paucity of information about the immigrants themselves, Yung focused on memory as a communal and individual process in ...nges & disappearances. 'Memory informs identity. Memory is also the only thing that an immigrant can bring with certainty to a new land,' an immigrant herself, the artist writes in her exhibition statement. 'Yet with time, memory shifts and changes--and so too, the person who remembers.' For the mine- and railroad-workers, the loss of personal memories parallels their erasure from the region¹s communal memory, after they were no longer needed for local industries."
The Vanishing: Re-presenting the American West was organized by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, and in addition to Yung's ...nges & disappearances, includes historical photographs, and paintings by Hung Liu. The exhibition will travel to venues in the Intermountain West, including Prichard Art Gallery at the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.
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