Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Either-Or: a statement about my race and my art

Found it-- the piece I wrote to go with my submission package for the Dallas Contemporary Mix! Series back in October (programming for these exhibitions focuses on artists whose race/ethnicity plays a role in their work):


The Black-White-Asian-Hispanic divide is not simple. As long as there are people having sex-- whether love or power be the basis-- the races will mix and match. Either-Or? I am Neither-Nor-- not reducible to that one check box. My personal experience with race is beyond multiculturalism, beyond pluralism, beyond any racial or other cultural ghetto, and demonstrates the future of race-- the Post Race Condition. And it is reflected in my work. There is no hierarchy of sources, no one medium or material that is better than the rest. Mixing and matching images to make new meanings is my way. It's as fluid and natural as any two human beings being in love with each other. Hello World, don't you know yet? The enemy is no longer the other race-- the new enemy is corporate greed and its consolidation of power. But that's a whole other story.


I'm half Chinese and half Jew, but you wouldn't know it by my name-- at 20 I claimed Raymond-- the first name of my grandfather who died before I was born.