9 Months in America: An Ethnocentric Tour by Wing Young Huie

Premiere exhibition at Minnesota Museum of American Art’s new Riverfront Gallery

April 17 - August 1, 2004

50 Kellogg Boulevard, Suite 742 (at Market Street), downtown St. Paul

Opening Party Friday, April 16

Admission is $5, $3 for seniors and students (with ID),

free for Museum members and children 4 & under, and free on Thursdays.

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11 am – 4 pm, Thursday 11 am – 8 pm, Sunday 1 – 5 pm

St. Paul, MN. The Minnesota Museum of American Art (MMAA) presents the exhibition 9 Months in America: An Ethnocentric Tour by Wing Young Huie from April 17 to August 1, 2004, at its new gallery space on Kellogg Boulevard at Market Street, downtown St. Paul. This exhibition, organized by the Museum, showcases recent work by Wing Young Huie, who, on a nine-month road trip across America with his wife, Tara Huie, photographed people and places and videotaped interviews to explore how Chinese/Asian culture is interwoven into mainstream America. It aims to challenge and enlarge viewers’ perceptions of this vast and complex community.

 This is the premiere exhibition in the MMAA’s new space in the Ramsey County Government Center West building. The temporary gallery occupies the former garage space in the west end of the county’s Riverfront complex at the corner of Kellogg Boulevard and Market Street in downtown St. Paul. The MMAA is closing its Landmark Center galleries March 28.

The exhibition is comprised of 105 framed photographs taken by Wing, and a collaborative video by Wing and Tara that is presented on four screens.

Sixty-two of the photographs are color prints and forty-three are black and white prints, and they range in size from 8” by 10” to 48” by 60”.

Through photography and video, Wing explores themes such as the “everywhereness” of Chinese restaurants, Bruce Lee as a cross-cultural icon, Asian American culture in the American South, the kitschification of Buddhas, and ultimately, the ways in which Asian-America is America.

“For most of my life I’ve looked at my own Chinese-ness through a white, middle-class prism, especially growing up in Duluth, Minnesota,” Wing remarked. “People who looked like me were hard to find in my hometown or in the popular culture I was immersed in. Due to this ethnocentric filter, my own parents at times seemed exotic to me. Interestingly, they became my first photographic subjects. And now, 25 years later, I again focus on the issues that make me a hyphenated American. On this nine-month odyssey it was refreshing to look at America through my own particular ethnocentric lens and see the exotic as familiar, and vice-versa. What I found was a place that for the most part exists under the prevailing cultural radar, but is as American as Buddha bars, Bruce Lee dolls, and chop suey.”

For the last decade, Wing has photographed the mixture of socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural realities that encompass his home state of Minnesota. In this continual effort to create up-to-the-minute societal mirrors, he aims to reveal not only what is hidden, but also what is plainly visible and seldom noticed. For more information about Wing’s work, visit http://www.wingyounghuie.com/.

Major funding for the Minnesota Museum of American Art’s programs has been provided by Target, Marshall Field’s and Mervyn’s with support from the Target Foundation. Funding for 9 Months in America: An Ethnocentric Tour by Wing Young Huie and its related programs has been provided by F.R. Bigelow Foundation, Otto Bremer Foundation, General Mills Community Action, Xcel Energy Foundation, and Margaret Rivers Fund. In-kind support provided by Ramsey County, 3M, and the City of Saint Paul.

Related events and programs:

Friday, April 16 ― MMAA Riverfront Gallery opening

6–8 pm ― Preview with Wing Young Huie. Music by Belladonna Baroque Ensemble and Guest Artist Gao Hong, champagne and light fare. ($100 per person)

8 pm–1 am ― Party. Live music by Watching Leona and Kwang; an Elvis tribute performance by nationally known Elvis impersonator John Newinn and his father Henry (featured in the exhibition); spoken word artists Wang Ping, Ed Bok Lee, David Mura, Preeti Kaur Rajpal, and Juliana Pegues; cash bar and food concessions. ($10/$12 at the door, $8 students and MMAA members)

Purchase advance tickets at http://www.mmaa.org/ or call 651-292-4380.

Information on other public programs to be announced.

Tours:

Sunday, May 16, 2 pm ― American Sign Language-interpreted public tour

Additional public tour dates to be announced.

Guided tours of 9 Months in America are available during regular Museum hours, and are free with paid admission. To schedule a group tour, call 651-292-4395 at least three weeks in advance.

Admission:

$5 for adults, $3 for seniors and students (with ID), free for MMAA members and children 4 & under.

Free on Thursdays.

Please note NEW Hours:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 11 am-4 pm; Thursday 11 am-8 pm; Sunday 1-5 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

For over 75 years, the Minnesota Museum of American Art has presented exhibitions and education programs in St. Paul. The MMAA’s collection and programs celebrate the diversity of American art from the 19th century to the present. For more information about the MMAA and upcoming events, visit www.mmaa.org.

Digital images and slides for 9 Months in America are available on request.

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