We Are All Mountaineers - Exit

Artist Bovey Lee (Chinese, born 1969)

Date2018

MediumChinese xuan paper on silk

DimensionsFramed: 29 1/2 x 37 1/4 x 2 in. (74.9 x 94.6 x 5.1 cm) Unframed: 20 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (52.1 x 74.9 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Escalette Endowment

Object number2019.2.1

Label TextBovey Lee's intricate cut-paper lattices, depicting complex human and environmental narratives, derive from the ancient Chinese folk tradition of paper cutting, a communal activity performed by women who typically produce scenes of village life, often working anonymously and without credit. Lee brings that practice into the present by making it personal and by using a computer to create visual templates that guide the path of her Exacto knife. This piece, "We Are All Mountaineers – Exit (出)," is part of a larger series which examines the immigrant experience, portraying it, alternately, as a perilous ocean journey and as a radiant hillside city — constructed more as an obstacle course to be navigated than a place to inhabit. As the "ancestor" for the other work in the series, "We Are All Mountaineers – Exit (出)" depicts a brief history of U.S. immigration with mountains and several U.S. cities populated by immigrants serving as a backdrop. In this mazelike scene, recurring motifs including stars, gates, fences, oceans are transformed into symbols of nationhood, journey, and home.

Status

On view

Location