As the chief executive of Phillip Lim 3.1, Wen Zhou knows how to harness her power. That’s why she turned the Phillip Lim 3.1 boutique on New York’s Great Jones Street into an exhibition space for Crafting Selfhood, a group show co-curated by Lora Appleton and Karen Wong that puts a spotlight on the work of 13 Asian American female artists and designers. 'If I don't, who will?' asked the CEO during the opening. 'I feel that it is my job, my duty. If I have a platform, I'm going to use it.'
On view until 23 May 2024, Crafting Selfhood runs in conjunction with both AAPI Heritage Month and New York Design Week. An assemblage of ceramics and sculpture, the exhibition features exhibits by Janny Beak, Cecile Chong, Phaan Howng, Lena Imamura, Sonya Yong James, Myung Jin Kim, Antonia Kuo, Eunji Jun and Halin Lee, Eny Lee Parker, Linda Sormin, and Steffany Trần.
Phillip Lim 3.1 presents 'Crafting Selfhood'
'We were looking at a way to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month and identity, [...] such a major point in the art world,' explained Wong. 'There has been an obsession around portraiture, and we were excited to show how other artists are crafting their identity, crafting selfhood, and it was exciting to bring together a group of artists who are working in three dimensions, and particularly ceramics.'
Although it’s AAPI Heritage Month, it’s important to look at these women and their work year-round, beyond their common Asian identity. As diverse and varied as the women themselves, the pieces in Crafting Selfhood span from colourful, tech-infused lamps to intricate, chaotic forms, to large decorative vessels, and minimal sculptures. Myung Jin Kim made enormous terracotta vessels painted with white owls and foliage. Trần assembled a minimal form consisting of a round ceramic base that sits beneath a larger, cream gridded ovoid piece. Lena Imamura made playful lamps with her own hair and tablets that display video art of things like falling chairs and animated flowers.
'It's about identity, but it's not about people who make work about their Asian identity,' said Taiwanese American artist Phaan Howng. 'And that we can also make things besides that.' Howng created a large-scale floral painting as well as planters in a shade akin to Yves Klein blue. 'The Home Depot piece especially just reminds me of my parents dragging me to Home Depot to go buy plants and stuff,' she said of the childhood ritual she formerly despised. 'So maybe [that’s] trauma processing even though I love it now.'
Eny Lee Parker, a New York-based Korean designer who was born and raised in Brazil, contributed a metaphor for New York, a standing lamp composed of a wooden pillar with illuminated bulbous forms and small metallic dials emerging from it that turn on each light. 'It's really based on New York City and if you're walking around, and you get to see little peaks of the clouds. I wanted to like look like a structure, like a building, but in perspective, so that's why it tapers, and then you see all the lights coming out and those are like the clouds,' she told Wallpaper*.
Chinese American artist Julia Chiang formed five ceramic tabletop vessels, coated in a speckled glaze. 'I'm constantly thinking of our bodies as vessels, what we can hold, and I think that connects to all of us and how we connect to nature and each other,' said the artist.
'In the world of artists and designers, [Asian-American women] are often hidden,' said Appleton. 'It's really critical to shine a spotlight on incredible women doing wonderful work in ceramic and in sculpture and inform.'
'Crafting Selfhood' is on view until 23 May 2024
3.1 Phillip Lim
48 Great Jones St.
New York, NY 10012
