New York Historical Society: Inclusion/Exclusion

At a population count of 451,859, New York City alone has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia. We may not know much about the first Chinese who immigrated to North America, but as a native Chinese myself, I know I should.

Visiting this exhibit: Inclusion/Exclusion at the New York Historical Society taught me plenty about the story of China's impact on the United States history. From exclusionary laws to the racist caricatures in mainstream media, Chinese Americans have faced great perils and suffering in the early days of the USA - but this exhibition's primary narrative is on how Chinese-American identity came to be.

As an art student and prospective artist, the theme of identity has been omnipresent in the process and subsequently, the result of my work. Who are you? What do you want to create? Why do you create?

This exhibition offered a variation on that theme, shaping a story of discrimination, the subsequent recrimination that arose and how the Chinese people's trials finally gave way to celebration. There are artifacts on display that pose emphatic questions relating to Chinese American Identity - "How do you become American" or "What does it mean to be Chinese?" before setting out to explain how the Chinese came and fought for the hopes of preserving the temporality of Chinatown.

One item on display stood out to me in particular:

Adapting to the immigration laws that kept them apart, a local photography studio helped the Low family of New York create an impossible family portrait by pasting in the faces of missing relatives. Their earnest desire to keep the family portrait alive despite the effort and difficulties in doing so paints a poignant picture and created a sentiment that resonated deeply with me.

In overall, I felt that the museum did a splendid job in recreating the authenticity of the Chinese in America, but I also found myself wishing that they had given a wider perspective on shaping the identity narrative of the exhibition, perhaps lending more personal insight into the immigrants' lives on top of their current display. I would have loved to have properly understood why the migrations in China began in the first place as well as the reason they continued to persist despite the hostility and injustice they faced almost inevitably upon arrival. Only upon the expansion of the context, can we truly begin to understand.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Death Becomes Her

When it comes to Fashion, even death - as downbeat and melancholy it is - is a concept that has been broached - and conquered - with remarkably beautiful results.

Death Becomes Her is an exhibition on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that explores the aesthetic progression and cultural implications of fashion in mourning between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Thirty historic ensembles, all associated with mourning and awash in black and similarly sombre colors such as white, mauve, and a little bit of gray (as the mourning period of that individual wore on) have been placed on display. This collection includes fantastically preserved gowns that have been worn by revered figures such as Queen Victoria herself.

Attending this exhibition reminded me of our lesson in class, where we covered the concept of the Cabinet of Curiosities and in extension, the Victorian Era. It was an age of great sexual repression and conservativeness in the British Empire - when her husband, Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria retired permanently to a life of mourning and bereavement, all the while dressing in accordance. Following this concept of loss, the idea of mementos, or the collection of personal, scientific, anthropological things and displaying them in Cabinets of Curiosities gained great importance and priority in order to preserve memories of those who have passed.

While the overarching theme was a sombre one, the pieces on display in this exhibition were delightfully ornate when viewed up close. It was fascinating to see that even mourning had highly regimented conventions that extended to fashion, dictating what one could or could not wear while bereaving a loved one. These were even marked by a series of stages, each indicating a change in fabrics and colors. Failing to comply with these expectations indicated a lack of sincerity or true loss, inciting scorn from society. A widow in Victorian England and nineteenth century America was expected to mourn - through sartorial display at the very least - for two full years. In the first few months, only "lusterless" black dresses were allowed. Precise instructions on what hairstyles or accessories were acceptable were doled out in journals and handed out to households. Eventually, as the mourning period progressed, strictures would slowly loosen and their fashion regiments mellowing out in correspondence. Modesty was key.

In the twenty-first century, such strict conventions and the elaborate gowns, accessories and trinkets that surrounded these rules may sound overwhelming, maybe even ridiculous. But I found them fascinating as well.

I see the modern funeral industry as no different - it has exploited a vulnerable concept that is unavoidable in any lifetime and turned it into an exhaustive and expensive exercise. The idea of death has been glamorized. We tend to mythologize the dead, and the measures we take to commemorate them are just as elaborate, if just a little more temporal than Victorian traditions. Caskets can be made of ornate materials costing thousands of dollars, even if they are destined to disintegrate with the material bodies of our loved ones eventually. Hiring a makeup artist for hundreds of dollars to pretty up the deceased such that they look presentable - and alive - at open-casket wakes is not uncommon. These are tedious, expensive rituals that surround the dead. The topic of death is a cloudy grey area to navigate whilst amongst the living. The level of elaborateness and expense that is invested into these processions serve may vary, with either extreme inciting just as much unkind judgment. If you're spending too much, you're being excessive, perhaps trying to use your expense as a bragging right - if you're too simplistic... did you even feel sorry about the loss of your loved one? That said, these gestures are done in acts of respect.

Modern mourning traditions lack certain characteristics that the Victoria era fulfills. We think of the latter as over the top and constraining, but it does serve as a reminder that is not as stark as it is today - that death is only the beginning of a tiresome grieving process. The clothing traditions, while followed in strict sequence, can serve as outward indicators that we, as the bereaved use to convey our loss. More often than not we are so caught up in our personal lives that we fail to acknowledge the burdens of the passersby encountered in our daily lives. Having the formal propriety of clothing as an indicator of our suffering, and even which point of the mourning procession we are at could provide a sense of etiquette, allowing others to understand and even encourage them to be a little bit more patient with our grieving process.

Perhaps not a beautiful dress, but a little memento may serve enough as a reminder that the love for the passed does not die out even when the last mourner has left the graveside.

Grey Art Gallery// Ernest Cole: Photographer

Photo by NYU News

As a young Asian female living in a first world country, I belong to a privileged strata of people who have led very comfortable and sheltered lives. Ernest Cole: Photographer left an indelible reminder of this fact. His black-and-white gelatin prints capture incredibly dark subject matter - the oppression of apartheid in South Africa in the 60's, which he personally lived under.

Unique from photographers who have worked with the same subjects, Ernest Cole's work does not depict high-tension, dramatic moments of the apartheid - he chose instead to photograph the everyday interactions that he witnessed in the streets. While not in-your-face, these pictures are still in every bit politically resonating, and manage to capture the brutality of his subject's experiences while simultaneously showing how they coped with their oppression day by day.

I did find myself wishing that the pictures had been blown up in scale (perhaps at least 4-5 times their actual size) such that viewers could get a stronger understanding of the subject at hand, but I feel that the set up was decidedly small to correspond with Cole's theme of focusing on the little things that matter.

Mary Boone Gallery: Skyfarm Fortress by Jacob Hashimoto

Skyfarm Fortress is a collage of kites forming a "sky" by Jacob Hashimoto. It was mesmerizing when I visited. The entire room was filled with hundreds of suspended kites of varying colors, sizes and shapes, all meticulously arranged to create a beautiful composition. Combined with the simulated sound of rain dropping on the roof, the viewer is immersed in tranquility and awe the moment they step in.

To the uninitiated, it was not unlike stepping into a life-sized lego set with each 2-D kite carefully affixed to form a 3-D sculpture. I loved that he used kites, taking an aspect of his own culture and making something that is sophisticatedly, and most importantly, universally beautiful. The use of kites also delivered a sense of carefree weightlessness - I'm sure the room wouldn't have felt quite as tranquil if the kites were made of something solid such as the lego bricks I previously mentioned.

On a related note - just a few nights ago, a close friend and I were eating at Ippudo Ramen restaurant on 51st street between 8th and 9th avenue. While the service and food were excellent and akin to what we have had in Japan itself, I was a little thrown off by how the staff would bow and bellow greetings in Japanese to their customers. I felt that it robbed Ippudo of its authenticity as a Japanese restaurant, counteracting the very reason the staff were taught the greetings in the first place. While I understand that it is a different context and entirely different industry, I feel that sometimes in foreign countries outside of Asia, the Asian (or any foreign culture really) culture is often depicted in a way that is highly exaggerated or played up to appeal to their audiences. It is often the result of an archaic Orientalism that lacks a modern, educated understanding of what that culture actually represents and perpetrators are often even people from that culture itself!

In a very long-winded way, I mean to say that Hashimoto seems to have risen above all that, and through this exhibition I felt that he was able to deliver the sentiments of his culture successfully on a universal level without hyperbolizing or sensationalizing any aspect of it. I loved this showcase and would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Natural Museum of the American Indian // Glittering World: Navajo Jewelry of the Yazzie Family

Prior to my visit, I decided to do a little research on the Glittering World to gain some contextual understanding of the exhibition. 

As it appears, the collection of Navajo jewelry was made entirely by the 12-sibling Yazzie family, a collective of master jewelers from Gallup, New Mexico. They are one of the most celebrated jewelry making families of their time, and do not typically produce more than 10 pieces a year - signifying the immense intricacy that is invested into each piece of jewelry. Each pendant, necklace, bracelet, ring or buckle has been inset with hundreds and hundreds of precious stones using their unique combination of original and traditional silversmith techniques. Material beauty aside, the accessories also carry great symbolic meaning, creating positive power and bringing blessedness to their wearers.

Featuring almost 300 examples of contemporary jewelry made by several members of the Yazzie family, Glittering World shows how the Yazzie family’s art carries on from their Southwest cultural root and the strong connection to their Navajo traditions. Moreover, I was able to gain a greater understanding on Navajo jewelry and its construction, its development as a form of cultural expression and the meaning behind the strong, spiritual symbolism.

As a fashion student, it was a great being able to get to the root of one of Fashion's greatest trends - The industry itself and street style enthusiasts alike have been appropriating American Indian designs for years, but nothing beats being able to see  up close and in greater personal detail. 

Museum of Modern Art: Henri Matisse: The Cut Outs

It was truly a shame that I was unable to take pictures at this exhibition, as it would've been great to be able to keep a personalized memory of this visit.

In this exhibition, MoMa has put on display the largest and most in-depth presentation of Henri Matisse's cut-out works, an insight into his final years as a legendary artist. In the late 1940's he worked almost exclusively with painted paper and scissors as his primary medium. He would cut abstract forms into the pieces of paper before arranging them into visually arresting compositions, playing with line, color, contrast and texture. Here, we were treated to his drawings, prints, illustrated books, stained glass and textiles.

(Picture from New York Times)

It was delightful being able to see the progression of his art. As a viewer, I could see him growing more confident, dramatic, ambitious and experimental with his designs as he continued to explore this newfound medium. They started out small and modest in size, but as he went on, they expanded in terms of scale, size and design, evolving eventually into room-sized works. It was also fun to see him breathe life into his environment, taking practical, everyday objects that we constantly overlook and illuminating them with his touch.


I felt that the exhibition was fitting for MoMa, given their ideal aesthetic and mission statement: To explore ideals and interests generated in the new artistic traditions that began in the late nineteenth century and continue today. Matisse was able to introduce and popularize the Cut-out as a radically new medium. His scale and technique also seemed to fit perfectly into the museum's interior layout, and I enjoyed walking through the space immensely. Karl Buchberg, the museum's senior conservator did an excellent job of arranging the pieces to fit concisely with the layout and still maintain an engaging composition. Even with Matisse's site-specific cutout, "The Swimming Pool",

Matisse had created the piece to put on display in his kitchen in Nice (Which MoMa now owns) in 1952. It is laid out to be a horizontal, wrap-around mural, and MoMa had worked around that problem and translated it to a museum context seamlessly.

Fashion Institute of Technology: Dance and Fashion

Set in a mise-en-scène full of dramatic flair by architect Kim Ackert, this exhibition opens with an enthralling display of ballet costumes and similarly dance-related fashion pieces from the 1830's to modern times.

Designers such as Stella McCartney, Yves Saint Laurent, Cristobal Balenciaga Rick Owens, Iris Van Herpen and Oscar de la Renta were amongst those featured here and it was terribly exciting to see their masterpieces live. 

The exhibition aims to explore the relation between dance and fashion and their influence as art forms on one another. It primarily features designs created for the New York City ballet, but also includes modern dance costumes worn by famed dancers. 

Ballet dress by Iris Van Herpen - she is part of a new wave of upcoming designers, and has been hailed as the next Alexander Mcqueen due to her innovative use of 3D structures and futuristic, surrealistic textures.

This piece stood out to be because it had been part of an event that drew tantamount attention from the public. 

Rick Owens, an American fashion designer hailing from California had created his Spring/Summer 2014 collection and drawn inspiration from "stepping", a form of dance that evolved in African-American colleges. It is effectively a fusion of step dancing and cheerleading with military precision. For the runway showcase, Owens chose to debut his Summer/Spring 2014 collection with the dancers from four different sorority hip-hop groups to perform a bombastic, provocative and vicious dance during the introduction.

This radical move came amidst a period of great social-political unrest in the Fashion industry –as we are normally accustomed to 6-foot-tall, lithe Caucasian models. Naomi Campbell was also struck by this sentiment, as she had just written to the British Fashion Council to lament about the great lack of black models on British runways. In addition to that, Kanye West had just debated the limited futures that black people had in the fashion industry. As a result Owens' vicious model-army and their full-throttle performance swept their audience and the rest of the fashion world away, making a massive statement about the cutthroat, discriminative and overly-commercialized nature of fashion week. 

It was amazing to be able to see up close and personal - a piece that had played such an vital part in changing fashion history.

Morgan Library// A Certain Slant of Light: Spencer Finch at the Morgan

Taking advantage of the Morgan Library 's four-storey, glass-enclosed Gilbert Court, American Artist Spencer Finch created a site-specific installation that plays with light and its ephemeral qualities. His exhibit (which I felt was really more of an experience) is not as impressionistic as it first appears - the entire process has a specific purpose, the construction of which required extensive calculation and meticulous precision. The result? Total enchantment.


In reference to the medieval Book of Hours theme, he used 365 pieces of colored film applied to the glass paneled windows of the Gilbert Court, exploiting the sun's movement to create a prayer calendar of sorts - using groups of different palettes to correspond to the time of the year. For example, November would be "harvesting" and the colors of the month will be based on the colors of the harvest. The installation also called for what the artist is identifying as "red-letter days." Marking secular holidays the artist considers significant—such as Sir Isaac Newton's birthday on January 4—red-colored glass would align with the sun's arc across Gilbert Court at noon on these days.

As such, no time of day at the museum will ever look the same again. Even upon first impression the installation is a beautiful one - to learn that it has been broken down to a math and careful calculation makes it all the more awe-inspiring. While not a household name, I read that precise calculation used to execute art installations are Spencer Finch's hallmark in his work, and as a result he does a brilliant job of capturing fleeting, sublime beauty.

Fashion Institute of Technology / Exposed: A History of Lingerie

I had the profound pleasure of visiting Exposed: A History of Lingerie at the Fashion Institute of Technology in my own time this past week. 

The exhibition chronicles the development of female intimate apparel from the 18th century to modern times. It was a small space, but more than 70 pieces from FIT's permanent collection were on display. Most interesting was what the exhibition hoped to capture, and it was a vision that was translated clearly to the viewer. I was able to see the subtle transition in fashion and technological trends, change in ideals of society and their subsequent impact on the silhouettes and overall appearances of the lingerie produced. As a fashion design BFA student, being able to witness this evolution up close and personal was a great experience.

For example, the trend of enhancing the breasts to give them a larger, fuller look and create an erotic allure goes all the way back to the 18th century. The underwiring of the corset below was forged from whalebone, providing a tighter and more structured fit, enhancing the bust while cinching at the waist to give the illusion of an hourglass figure. While underwear was meant to maintain a woman's modesty, it had to give he a beautiful shapeliness too. 

From thereon, it could be seen that the 19th century favoured female underwear started out with a focus on functionality, simple in design and made of humble materials. 

The 20th century on the other hand saw an evolution towards functionality, with women's lives demanded comfort and ability to move freely - cue the creation of the bra, as well as a more streamlined silhouette, changing to correspond to their slimmer, shaplier outerwear counterparts. 

Technological advancements allowed elasticized girdles to replace constricting corsets, while thinner, more delicate materials like lace provided ease in movement while simultaneously oozing with sex appeal. Lingerie was no longer just a complement to an outfit, worn to be hidden - it had become a fashion category all on its own, opening an endless exploration of design possibilities. 

Aesthetically, the exhibition was a visual feast as well. I especially loved Suki Cohen's neoprene body suit and bolero jacket which were both made from stretch nylon and neoprene. The structure is impeccable!

Name: Mag

Major: Fashion Design BFA Sophomore (Parsons)

Ethnicity: Shanghainese-Hong Kong, born in Malaysia, grew up in Singapore

Occupation: Co-founder/Art Director at www.hervelvetvase.com (c. 2007)

Interests: Stupidly fun things, Travel, Social Engineering, People, Music Festivals, Media Studies, GTA5, Food adventures, Breaking Bad

When I first came to the city it took a lot of getting used to. Singapore is a vibrant city in its own right, but nothing still could prepare me for the organized chaos that Manhattan is. I’ve realized that most people have a knack for talking at you rather than to you. Everyone’s always in a hurry. Skyscrapers loom over you, either effectively eclipsing the sky or blinding you with it. As you can imagine, it’s been hellish for the tightly-fisted introvert that I am.

That said, a year here has made me fall in love with the city.. albeit begrudgingly. I’ve gradually come to find its exuberance alluring rather than intimidating now, and grapple every opportunity I can to immerse myself in its multi-faceted culture. 

My favorite museum’s the Met, but that might change as I continue to add more notches to my belt of exhibitions, art galleries and museums visited. This class will be the perfect chance for myself to do just that, and I look forward to the experiences and exposure that will come. I hope you enjoy reading my blog hereon!

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