By Jimmy Lee
Being part of an exhibit titled “An Idea Called Tomorrow” suits Yong Soon Min perfectly. When the California African American Museum and the Skirball Cultural Center asked her along with 14 other artists from diverse backgrounds “to imagine and create what a civil and just future looks like,” the University of California- Irvine professor did not hesitate. Min has infused activism into her art for much of her life.
Her piece, “Rhizomatic! Fiddleheads!” on display in the atrium of the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, highlights historical quotes from the likes of Jesse Jackson to Kurt Cobain in a “graphical-textual” installation. Spanning some two dozen windows at the museum’s entryway, Min’s vinyl cut-outs use the metaphor of the rhizome, the part of the plant that can form a network of interconnected roots, to playfully depict how political and social movements can yield glorious flowerings.
It was a much less dramatic event, however, that would set the stage for Min’s future as an artist, back in 1960, the year she immigrated to Monterey, Calif., from South Korea. She was in the second grade, she explained to KoreAm in an interview last month, and her art teacher had assigned her some homework that would yield some glorious flowering of her own.
How did you end up choosing art?
As a homework assignment, I drew a Northern bathroom tissue girl. In the old days, they used to have all these different types of girls (used as logos)—brown-haired girls, blonde-haired girls, little girls with big eyes—and they were all really cute. And I aspired to be one of them. So I drew one, and definitely convinced myself, this is the best thing. And from that moment, I was sure I had artistic talent.
How ironic that you were inspired by those kinds of images?
They were girls that I could just relate to as a girl. And it was those big eyes (laughs). When you think about the iconography and the representations of females at that time, there was the white female, like Betty Crocker—I totally identified with them. But now I’ve become the classic ajumma, a total [Korean] drama addict.
The reason you made me think of dramas is that now you have all these amazing other icons, and they’re Korean. I’m ogling over all these beautiful men and girls, these new standards of beauty. I just came back from Indonesia, in this little village in Sumatra. This home we were staying at had this satellite dish, and they were watching Boys Over Flowers, [a Korean drama] that was a big hit all over Asia. And they were watching it without subtitles or dubbing, just straight Korean. They’re saying they love it because they love the look and the style.
With globalization then, might the Asian American consciousness awareness-raising that’s been a part of your work not be as relevant today?
That’s a really interesting dilemma. My first consciousness-raising moment was in the ’80s, catching up and learning about Asian American history and awareness. Now, it’s an entirely different moment, which is not to completely displace Asian American consciousness, but it’s in tandem with that. We are not post-identity. We are not post-race, because we are not post-racism. There are still ongoing manifestations of that. It’s still unfinished business.
So what does it mean to be a part of “An Idea Called Tomorrow,” whose vision is of a future of a just society?
It’s interesting to be part of this show that’s dealing with the history and legacy of civil rights. I think there’s so much in this culture that seems to perpetuate amnesia and forgetfulness of history. The civil rights movement was really one of the foundational historical moments, which brought about and inspired the Asian American movement, feminism, and a lot of other movements. I feel like the civil rights movement in many respects inspired me.
Now you’re inspired in part by Kor
ean dramas and K-pop. What would that person growing up in the ’60s, the anti-Vietnam War, Berkeley undergrad hippie, think?I don’t find it contradictory at all to think that you could love Patti Smith and Dylan at the same time you like K-pop! I’m very catholic in my tastes—big tent (laughs)! I think sometimes my work is about, what do I want to focus on, and how do I make sense of all this profusion of stuff. What connections do I want to draw on?
Is that your mission today as an artist then?
In a way. It’s kind of my own remix of all that’s out there. Originality, as a concept, is really now derived from a remix of what connections we are trying to make. And I’m trying to make a connection to things that really interest me right now and things that have an emotional hold on me.
Do you ever just want to paint a painting, to just produce some beautiful scenery?
Actually, no. I don’t know what that means to just paint a painting. To me, I would question what beauty is. To me, like for [French filmmaker Jean-Luc] Godard, truth is beauty. So we’re all, at least in some ways, searching for a certain kind of truth.
“An Idea Called Tomorrow” is on display at the California African American Museum (CAAM) and the Skirball Cultural Center, both based in Los Angeles, through March 7.
