YELLOW FEVER!!
Jessica Wu
Main Space Exhibition
11.28.2024 - 12.17.2024
Opening reception November 29 6PM
YELLOW FEVER!! is a selection of work that I have created discussing expected narratives, performing identity, and identity formation as a Chinese Canadian. I critique the stereotyping of Asian artists, the commodification of marginalized cultural production, and the so-called “Asian American Exhibit”. The exhibition is a journey through critiquing stereotypes, tokenization within institutions, to expressing how these realities have affected me as an artist, but more crucially, as a person.
As an Asian Canadian artist, I have often felt a pressure to conform to a few expected narratives when speaking about my identity in my art. I have felt a pervasive pressure to tell stories and relay experiences that are immediately relatable or accessible to audiences that do not have the same experiences as I do. There are expectations from audiences and institutions that put marginalized artists into boxes based on their identities. These boxes and ways of categorizing art and artists can be limiting to authentic expression, and commodifies our lived experiences for consumption.
YELLOW FEVER!! examines the nuances and difficulties with navigating the art world as a marginalized person, whether that be from society, the institution, or the self. It aims to ask the audience to challenge their expectations and how they interact with not only the work, but the artist.
Jessica Wu is an emerging artist. She was born in China and immigrated to Canada when she was 5 years old, and grew up in Calgary. After taking a printmaking course on a whim in her first year of university, she fell in love with the medium, and hasn’t looked back since. Now, she mainly works in silkscreen, lithography, and surface design on fabric. Her artistic practice focuses on themes of cultural and racial identity, memory, and sexuality. She marries printmaking, fabric dyeing, embroidery, drawing, and painting to explore how diaspora, tradition, and self-determination intersect. The individual must negotiate her relationship to the communities she belongs to and those outside her community, and this narrative is central to Jessica’s work. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Print Media from Alberta University of the Arts in May 2024, and completed a visual arts residency at Banff Centre of Arts and Creativity in June/July 2024.
ig: jwuarts website: jwuarts.neocities.org