The first focused survey of Asian American artists in a Los Angeles contemporary art museum, “Scratching at the Moon” celebrates the work of an intergenerational group of thirteen leading artists in the Asian American community whose contributions to culture are multiple, ranging from their distinctive visual arts production to their commitment to pedagogy to their dedication to research, activism, and community engagement. Featured artists include Patty Chang, Young Chung, Vishal Jugdeo, Simon Leung, Michelle Lopez, Yong Soon Min, Na Mira, Amanda Ross-Ho, Miljohn Ruperto, Dean Sameshima, Anna Sew Hoy, Amy Yao, and Bruce Yonemoto.
“The initial idea for ‘Scratching at the Moon’ came in the summer of 2020. It was the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, and we were all reckoning with the incredible loss and uncertainty. The movement in support of Black lives erupted across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, while Asian Americans faced increased attacks amidst false claims about COVID-19. In response, there was a rise in collective organizing and coalition-building, as communities came together to uplift one another and survive this global emergency. During this time, I began to imagine an exhibition of Asian American artists living in Los Angeles—or with close ties here—that would make visible the communities and relationships in which I had participated since returning to the city in 2002,” recounts Sew Hoy.
“While Los Angeles has long been home to a large and growing Asian American population, the work of artists from diasporic immigrant communities remains underrepresented in art institutions in the city,” Ellegood states. “‘Scratching at the Moon’ highlights the diverse stories of those from the Asian diaspora in America and their innumerable contributions to all facets of life in the United States—undeniably ‘American’ stories—providing models of what being Asian American looks like.”
With a focus on artistic production in Los Angeles, ‘Scratching at the Moon” traces the overlapping activities among dynamic artistic communities that have come to define the city’s art world over the past two decades. The artists in the exhibition come from varied backgrounds—some born in the United States and others who emigrated from Korea, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Canada—and their works confront such topics as gender roles, structural racism, immigration, displacement, gentrification, family, and the archive. The exhibition presents significant works—several created specifically for “Scratching at the Moon”—encompassing the mediums of video, multi-media installation, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and performance. A recurring thread uniting these artists’ distinct practices is a relationship to the immigrant experience. While the exhibition relies on the category of Asian American to redress some of the lack of representation in contemporary art museums, it also seeks to pull apart that very category by honoring the diversity and multiplicity within it.
“Scratching at the Moon” argues that every body is an archive within which generations of experiences across continents are held. The stories contained within the works on view not only trouble, but also expand our understandings of Asian American identity beyond superficial characteristics. Instead, they present identity as something informed by experiences of displacement, cross-cultural existence, misidentification, and marginalization, alongside understandings of family bonds, chosen communities, and resiliency, resulting in a far more complex sense of identity as lived, shared, and embodied. Contributing to efforts of coalition building, collaboration, and the beautiful entanglements that shape identity, “Scratching at the Moon” honors and historicizes the important work of these deserving artists, mapping their roles and activities within a variety of cultural contexts. The artists’ commitment to community, criticality, and resistance is visible across their works, and “Scratching at the Moon” provides an opportunity to bear witness, together, to the critical stories these important artists bring to light.
Curated by
Anna Sew Hoy, Good Works Executive Director Anne Ellegood and Curatorial Associate Caroline Ellen Liou
at ICA LA, Los Angeles
until May 12, 2024