alejandro t. acierto

Rumors of Necessity
October 17 - Nov 15, 2019
Tipton Gallery
East Tennessee State University

an exhibition of Asian American artists Paul Pak-hing Lee, Richard A. Lou, Emily Hanako Momohara, Sisivahn Phouthavong, and Hồng-Ân Trương
curated by alejandro t. acierto

Rumors of necessity is an exhibition that positions Asian American bodies in relation to conditions of surveillance, militarization, and exclusion in an era of ongoing wars along the US border and abroad. Hinged on the notion of the rumor where contemporary anxieties around difference have often been the result of mis-information, this exhibition draws on contemporary Asian American artists in Tennessee and the archive to articulate strategies of the state to enact corporeal control through militarization and exclusion. Foregrounding our contemporary moment where racial profiling of Muslim and Latinx communities emerges as an ongoing trope of 45’s administration and is further propelled by broader social anxieties that have amplified white supremacist ideologies, this exhibition works to present alternative forms of embodiment that speak back to historical traumas of militarization and exclusion. With artists Paul Pak-hing Lee, Richard A. Lou, Emily Hanako Momohara, Sisivahn Phouthavong, and Hồng-Ân Trương, the works in this show will be in direct conversation with Tennessee’s racialized past.