What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1499692
10 What's up! May 21-27, 2023 six Minutes, six Questions Kim Lý APRIL WALLACE NWA Democrat-Gazette O zark Home, Beyond the Frame" is an exhibit of contemporary art and items of home life from a wide array of Northwest Arkansas artists. Curated by Samantha Sigmon and Cory Perry, with organizing help from Deena R. Owens and Dana Holoroyd, the exhibit is shown over two locations, The Medium and Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, both in Springdale. Artist Kim Lý's installation "Return Home" is a 6-by-6-foot colorful canvas collage that seems to invite viewers to sit and take in the work, which includes portraits of her Vietnamese family members taken on a night of celebration. Lý answered a few questions about it for What's Up! Q. First off, tell me a little about yourself. Where did you grow up? What's home for you? A. Born in 1994 in Fort Smith, I identify as a Vietnamese American female artist who seeks ways to represent my own lived experience. My work focuses on the concept of transnationality, where people feel they belong in more than one place or culture simultaneously. My parents were born and raised in the South of Vietnam and later immigrated to Fort Smith on their individual journeys. My brother and I were born and raised in the Ozarks. And I have continued living and working here as of today, but I always felt somewhat out of place. I don't feel that I'm from the Ozarks, and I don't feel that I'm from Vietnam. To me, home resides within a space that is not marked by physical borders or territory. We live in a world where migration creates a hybrid mixture between cultures and challenges traditional concepts of identity, nationality, and nation. I make art to process and share my transnational experience as a way of introspection and to contribute to the larger story of migration. This most recent work, "Return Home," addresses my internal conflict of what I consider home. Q. Would you describe your work for me? A. On the gallery wall sits a 6-by-6- foot colorful canvas painted with a repeating metallic pattern that is inspired by the iridescent ceilings commonly seen in the homes of Vietnam. A portrait of my father sits at the center of this installation while being surrounded by his sister (to his left) and his nieces standing over them. Other family members and painted images of objects and nature that make up what I consider "home" cover the remainder of the canvas. The 120 film portraits in this installation were taken with a Mamiya C22 on the patio of the house of Có Sáu (my Aunt 6) where I stayed for my visit to Vietnam in January. In the background of these portraits, a round table and plastic red stools provide a space for communal activity over beer, food and conversation. The installation includes a 3D printed stool sitting on a multicolored shelf with a gold edge and two plastic life-size stools for visitors to sit on. Q. What is the significance of the red stool? A. The tales of Vietnamese refugees and their community in Fort Smith are not included when one looks up Artist Kim Lý pauses at the philbrook Museum in tulsa, Okla. the image was taken on 120 film. (Courtesy Image) FYI Faq 'Ozark Home' WHEN — Until June 4 at The Medium and throughout 2023 at Shiloh Museum of Ozark History WHERE — Springdale COST — Free INFO — cachecreate.org