ASIA_NO.W.HERE Exhibition
Statement
"Your magazine is of no significance and YOU
are of no significance"
That was the heartfelt welcome I received at a press reception
from this very proud Ivy League Chinese MBA student as he
put his forefinger deep into my chest.
It was my first real job, as Art Director for a business
magazine in Manhattan. Our cover story was a survey of professionals
and academics on which school had the best MBA program. Our
cover featured Stanford as the winner that year. My critic
was from Harvard by way of Hong Kong. Somehow, I got the
feeling that the editors and I had struck a nerve - a very
Chinese nerve.
Fast forward to part two of my Manhattan creative career,
now as the Senior V.P. and Creative Director of Bloomingdale's,
then a cultural, creative and retail institution. Back when "Bloomies" meant
something.
Metropolitan Home magazine had featured my renovated barn
in Connecticut on the cover and 12 inside pages, which sent
minor shock waves through their readership. In the 80's,
young Asian faces were simply not prevalent in national lifestyle
magazines, especially as the owners of iconographic American
weekend retreats.
I got a call from the magazine reporting
that they'd received some "very interesting" mail
in response to the cover story... Asian responses. Upon
reading, the letters were all extremely similar. Each came
from an Asian student who was studying science or business,
while secretly dreaming of a creative career. The most
memorable was from a student at Harvard business school,
who had been informed by members of his prominent banking
family that if he insisted upon the pursuit of his dream,
he would be summarily deleted from the family business
and will. Unlike mine, their creative dreams had very little
chance of materializing.
Always proud of my Chinese roots and Confucian values, for
the first time, I began to understand the noose around so
many young Asian necks...creative endeavors were fine as
a hobby but not to be taken seriously if thinking of the
honor of your family. To be creative was to be selfish. Creativity
was not for the serious or committed. Insisting upon being
creative meant you would starve. Being creative was for those
who couldn't cut the academic mustard. Being creative was
only acceptable as a last resort.
Jump cut to 2004, when Asian faces
are everywhere, almost to the point of becoming an advertising
cliché - from
being a model minority in the 50's to just being a model.
If this is progress, I'll take it. The work in "Asia
Nowhere" evidences the emerging self-confidence evocative
of all the universal as well as unique characteristics of
our different cultures. Described as hybrid media, this exhibition
is a simple scratch of the surface of what will be revealed
in this decade and still new millennium.
This celebration of creativity through a modern hybrid of
culture, media and technology is a signpost that Asian creativity
is coming into its own and becoming both more prominent and
influential throughout the world. Western civilization was
the envy of our forefathers; its philosophical underpinnings
of superiority provided us with the skills to be globally
competitive, but not without deep insecurities. And now there
is an opportunity for our thousands of years old existence
to teach the old dog a new trick or two after all.
Design shows, like architecture discourse,
often speak in a language of academic vagueness. For some,
this is the fee necessary to be taken seriously as a creative
mind, as conceptually sound. "Asia Nowhere" expresses
much more than high design. It far surpasses whatever achievements
it represents in the teaching of creative ideas and its
related industries. This show represents more than a grouping
of brilliant Asian work.
And it is beyond simply being cool.
This exhibition offers proof that
the door has been opened wider for the next group of creative
immigrants arriving to our virtual shores. This is a step
towards individual expression still not complete but steadily
gaining momentum. It is also about an embarrassing family
fight rarely shown to the outside world - a turmoil that
still refuses to go away. In the recent New York Times
best selling book, "What
Should I Do With My Life" by Po Bronson, the author
mentions a Taiwanese artist who's father was a banker. Sadly
his paintings were deemed "devastating and embarrassing" to
the father. Even in 2004, being serious about being creative
had no place in his life.
The appreciation of "Asia Nowhere" can
be written from many perspectives. I celebrate it not merely
as creative peer or critic but as a fellow Asian who appreciates
just how significant the accomplishments are. This is about
humanity and freedom as an individual, while maintaining
ethnic identity. It is about placing our priority on being
successful within our culture first and winning.
The creativity expressed by these
artists, designers, directors and art directors has given
us a healthy distance from the shadow of Confucius. We
are now somewhere ... somewhere closer to shedding the
weight of Confucius from our collective shoulders. "Asia
Nowhere" is a place and time of creative freedom for
all of us.
John C Jay
Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo |
