IMU UR2: Art, Aesthetics, and Asian America

On October 28-29, the Asian American Art Initiative (AAAI), co-directed by Marci Kwon (Assistant Professor, Art & Art History) and Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander (Associate Curator, Cantor Arts Center), will organize a two-day symposium in collaboration with the Stanford Arts Incubator that brings together artists, curators, and academics to rethink and reimagine the histories and futures of artists of Asian descent. The title of the symposium, IMU UR2 is a phrase coined by the painter Martin Wong, who lived in San Francisco and New York. Phonetically reading “I am you, you are two/too/to,” it captures the imagination, playfulness, and conceptual depth of Wong’s work. Here, the self is not singular but made in relation to others, who are likewise made in relation to us. The phrase encapsulates the symposium’s aim of thinking through the myriad ways Asian/Americans, and the work they create, are at once connected and distinctive. 

Co-directed by Marci Kwon (Assistant Professor, Art & Art History) and Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander (Associate Curator, Cantor Arts Center), the AAAI seeks to generate innovative research about Asian American artists and makers, based on close study of objects and primary sources.

The program will include panels on “Global Intimacies,” “Race and Aesthetics,” “Art & Activisms,” “History & Memory,” “Gender and Sexuality,” and “Institutional Interventions.”  Participants include Julie Ault, Chitra Ganesh, Joan Kee, Margo Machida, Dahn Vo, among many others.  The event will conclude with a keynote conversation at Bing Concert Hall between Cathy Park Hong, Jen Liu, and Marci Kwon.  The event will be live-streamed and will be free and open to the public. 

More information about the event, including RSVP information, will be available in mid-September.