RISING SON: Exhibition Overview
The beginnings of this decade will forever be defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It’s been a challenging time for everyone to say the least.
For me personally, these two years were also a formative time for deep personal and creative exploration and growth. I left my career as a business executive in Tech and began to spend more time pursuing my artistic journey. While doing so the escalating amount of “Asian Hate” rhetoric forced me - an American-born Chinese - to take a critical look at myself and how I felt about it ….and how and if I should respond. I decided to use my art as my megaphone.
“RISING SON” connects my personal journey and my artwork over this tumultuous period. “Rising” is representative of not only my artistic journey and my evolving creative voice, but also my awakened appreciation of my Asian heritage and my personal optimism and belief that society, and the Asian community in particular, will in fact rise up from this dark time with hope, love, peace and positive social change. And I consciously chose to use the term “Son” instead of the more commonly used “Sun” as a nod to both my mom, who is battling Lewy Body Dementia, and to my first real hero and the person I have always aspired to be most like – my late father.
Rodney