Japanese American Cultural Baggage
2003, 11"H x 22" W x 15"D
World Ceramic Exposition Foundation, Icheon, South Korea, Permanent Collection
Fear and anger inspired this art.
On 9/11, I feared the terrorists were Asian. My Japanese American family and I would be visibly identifiable, racially profiled, attacked, or relocated.
When the American government considered relocating Muslim Americans, anger triggered Japanese American Cultural Baggage to bring attention to the dangerous historical precedent established by Japanese Americans’ incarceration during World War II in America's Relocation Camps.
Thirty-seven Japanese American Relocation symbols the size of Netsuke, ivory sculptures, rest on a black rock garden, fitting inside a teabag of cultural baggage.
President Trump referred to COVID 19 as the “Chinese Virus.” Trump triggered Anti-Asian attacks in the context of executions of Black Americans and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Xenophobia continues. Racial profiling continues. Systemic racism continues.