'Rain of Bombs' by Sisavanh Phothavong
November 1–15, 2019 @ Tipton Gallery
The East Tennessee State University Department of Art & Design and Slocumb Galleries present ‘Rumors of Necessity: Asianx Artists’ through Nov. 15, at the Tipton Gallery. The First Friday reception with gallery talk and performance is Nov. 1, from 6 to 8 p.m., with artists Paul Lee and Sisavanh Phothavong and curator Alejandro Acierto.
Curated by Filipinx artist Acierto, Rumors of Necessity is “an exhibition that positions Asian American bodies in relation to conditions of surveillance, militarization and exclusion in an era of ongoing wars along the U.S. border and abroad. Hinged on the notion of the rumor where contemporary anxieties around difference have often been the result of misinformation, this exhibition draws on contemporary Asian American artists in Tennessee, Ohio, North Carolina and the archive to articulate strategies of the state to enact corporeal control through militarization and exclusion.” Featured artists are Tennessee-based Paul Pak-hing Lee, Richard A. Lou and Sisavanh Phouthavong with Há»"ng-Ân Truong and Emily Hanako Momohara. The curator describes the works in the exhibition to be in “direct conversation with Tennessee’s racialized past where their work will be paired alongside images and ephemera from the era of Japanese internment at Camp Forrest in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and with the establishment of confederate monuments that remain erected to this day.”
The exhibition is funded by the East Tennessee Foundation Arts Fund, ETSU Student Activities Allocation Funds, and the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Arts Project Support Grant. The Tipton Gallery is located at 126 Spring St., Johnson City. Gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays, 5-7 p.m., First Friday receptions from 6-8 p.m., and by appointment. For more information, email Slocumb Galleries’ Director’ Karlota Contreras-Koterbay at contrera@etsu.edu or call/text 423-483-3179.
Category: Exhibits
