C-prints transmounted on plexiglas, ½” plate glass sheets with sandblasted text; 3 panels, each 2′ x 9′, walls painted pink.
This set of three photographic panels with sandblasted glass texts speak about the influence of race and racism in the construction of beauty and the mediation of desire. They invoke how yearning for, and the rejection of ethnocentricisms or exoticizations are complex and perhaps problematic, especially with those who have internalized and/or externalized their racisms. Photographic images taken in Vancouver, New York and Shanghai.
I commented on how difficult it
seemed for some men of
Chinese ancestry to
consider Chinese
women as
beautiful,
or if
beautiful,
then as desirable.
Martin, whose wife is
of German descent, admitted
that he still had that problem.
Cornelio was surprised. In Hawaii
where he grew up, Asians were
always thought of as
more beautiful.
He said
this with a
certain sadness,
for although he was a
good-looking guy, it was never
Asians who found him attractive.
The very
thought disgusted her.
Why would she ever want to
do anything like that, she demanded.
Kissing one would be like kissing her
brother. And going out with
a Chinese guy would
feel, simply put,
incestuous.
I caught her
staring at me. She
looked so chinese to me, too.
I was surprised by the touch of her
skin — it was true, it was so smooth. So
was mine, she said. And after awhile
I began to look at Asian women,
something that I never before
could bring myself
to do.
I asked her about her preferences.
She said that although she didn’t
exactly prefer white men over
anybody else, they seemed
to gravitate towards her.
Besides, she couldn’t
find any other men
who could turn
her on in the
same way.
He was relatively open-minded, he
said, for someone who grew up in
Winnipeg 50 years ago. For
instance, he didn’t mind
his daughter going out
with anyone non-
Chinese, as
long as he
wasn’t
white.