"Community Treasures: Southeast Asia Meets Southern New England"

July 8 - 15, 1999

[Art Reviews]

Treasure trove

Home is where the art is in Southeast Asia Meets Southern New England

by Bill Rodriguez
"COMMUNITY TREASURES: SOUTHEAST ASIA MEETS SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND." At the University of Rhode Island, in Kingston, through July 30.

An untitled photograph by Cathy Weaver

"Community Treasures: Southeast Asia Meets Southern New England" is more of an exhibition than an art show, having been self-defined by the participating ethnic communities. Since it was limited by voluntary contributions, much to be seen has the arbitrary quality you might encounter in airport corridor display cases. Nevertheless, some informative glimpses of Hmong and Cambodian cultures are provided, and some striking samples of craftsmanship are quite illuminating.
There are only two sarongs from Laos, and nothing at all from the small Vietnamese community, mostly in Woonsocket. But an ambitious fall show on the aftermath of the Vietnam War will more than make up for the second omission.
The most literal treasure there is a Hmong silver necklace, so dense with intricate chained loops and dangling ornamentation, some of it set with small jewels, that it looks like a breastplate. The elaborate ornament is an impressive example of the urge as well as the urgency of maintaining cultural traditions, which the exhibition as a whole stresses. For many years the craft of making such jewelry was kept alive in internment camps by using the closest material at hand: aluminum cans!
The most boldly exotic items here are the traditional garb. Two of the three branches of Hmong are represented by them, the most elaborate being a Chinese Hmong dress. There's something brazenly wonderful about a cultural esthetic in which there is no such thing as color-clashing or imagery too densely packed. Like layered gypsy garb, two Hmong costumes are carnivals of color, from pleated skirts to dangling jewelry and purses. One, with iridescent pattern on black velvet and embellished with silver coins, is normally worn with the necklace that is being separately displayed.
On opposite walls of the Main Gallery, two black and white photo series enclose the exhibit with watchful faces of contrasting generations of the Cambodian community. Young girls, mostly at public occasions and ceremonies, are in the 18 photos by Cathy Weaver. One image in particular captures the new in the context of the old: while one friend adjusts her traditional dress behind her, the girl wearing it strikes the mischievously proud expression you might find on Madonna mid-strut.
The diverse and amiable collective personality of the Cambodian community comes across in the 16 "formal" portraits by Andrew K. Howard, an art professor at Wheaton College. Posed against a dark cloth, some hold objects precious to them, from musical instruments to a granddaughter. One man apparently is such an inveterate smoker that a cigarette is in his hand, next to an ashtray, to complete the picture. Howard's ability to catch personalities is amusingly evident with one couple: the husband sits stolid in his aviator dark glasses; his wife has one hand on his shoulder and stifles a laugh with the other.
As striking as some of the photographs are, perhaps the most graphic elements of the exhibition are the six "Paj Ntaub," Hmong story cloths, a tradition that originated in Thailand refugee camps. The variety of possible imagery is evident, ranging from farming activity to two depictions of a monkey legend. Two of the cloths are very large, perhaps 7 feet by 6 and pack in worlds. One depicts numerous attacks by soldiers on villagers, complete with streams of bullets and bleeding bodies. Obviously, this is a specific story being related. In one group, a villager is on his knees, hands folded in supplication toward his attacker, who only shoots him in the leg. All this is done with needlework as fine in detail as on the two Hmong wedding dresses displayed.
This is an informative show, both from the printed guide sheets that describe each contribution and the three videos displayed on a VCR in an alcove. A Cambodian Wedding is a documentary by Winnie Lambrecht, director of the Folk Arts Program at the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. The sense of disquiet and displacement by the first generation of Hmong refugees in the state, in the mid 1970s, is vividly conveyed by Ralph Rugoff and Peter O'Neill in The Best Place to Live. And filmmaker Joyce Smith has recorded a colorful dimension of that culture in Paj Ntaub: Textile Techniques of the Hmong.
"Community Treasures" may be a limited presentation, but it is a valuable one. It gives us the opportunity to visit two cultures from numerous entry points, every one of which is fascinating.

Treasure trove

Home is where the art is in Southeast Asia Meets Southern New England

by Bill Rodriguez