The Asian American Resource Center is proud to host an exhibit  reception featuring works from artists Dan Pham (The Banana’s Identity  Cookbook), Lauren Chai (A Place in this World), and Matthew Koshmrl  (Dokdo, Lone Island). Refreshments and light snacks will be served. Free  and open to the public.

Duality

In their vibrant paintings,  artists Lauren Chai and Dan Pham explore the duality of identity as  Asian Americans. Incorporating motifs derived from their lives, Pham’s  the Banana’s Identity Cookbook and Chai’s a Place in this World  expresses the desires of finding balance between two worlds.  These  exhibits are part of the Asian American Resource Center’s Community Art  Exhibition Program.

The Banana’s Identity Cookbook, Dan Pham

The  Banana’s Identity Cookbook serves as a visual diary for Dan Pham to  tell a story or event in her life as a way to exam her ongoing  fascination with dual identity, socialization, and how food is  culturally constructed. Growing up feeling “too Asian for Americans” and  “too white for Asians”, Pham seeks a space in between though her  artwork.

A Place in this World, Lauren Chai

In A Place in  this World, Lauren Chai uses mixed media to bring together different  elements as a reflection of her identity, a clash of traditional and  modern, eastern and western and the struggle for balance. Chai paints  issues such as taboo, feminism, sexuality, violation and oppression. She  also explores the abstract Korean cultural innate trait called “Han”.

Dokdo, Lone Island, Matthew Koshmrl

The  goal of DOKDO-AUSTIN is to bring the island of Dokdo to Austin, TX. The  dispute of Dokdo is ongoing and still very present in modern Korean  popular culture. Every year thousands of Koreans make the eight-hour  journey by boat for a mere 15 minute visit to the symbolic island,  before getting back on the return ferry to the mainland. Dokdo can be  found in children’s textbooks, in in the lyrics of Kpop songs, and often  used as a political tool by politicians. The irony of the small island  is that it is less than 50 acres, has no inhabitants, no exploitable  resources, and no tangible importance. More than anything else, the  significance of Dokdo is purely symbolic, a vestige of the dark period  in Japanese/Korean history. And yet, each year thousands of Koreans go  through great lengths to visit and pay homage to the island. Now, we are  bringing the island to Austin, TX.