Re/connections Exhibit Preview

To view the full exhibit, please visit Roberta’s Art Gallery in the UC on the main level 

Artist: Ger Xiong 

Exhibit statement

This exhibition takes a look into the re/connections of mother and son relationship through the utilization of adornment and textile objects. The exhibition takes a look into celebrating and finding re/connections growing up with a single mother in a land of unknown. This is a deep love letter to a mother who raised eight children in a new and unknown land after years of trauma of warfare and political unrest before, during, and after the Vietnam War. Each work draws upon the absence and unknown of a new world and how relationships are navigated and challenged through the scope of colonization, displacement, and assimilation. The work utilizes materials related to his upbringing seeing his mother working multiple jobs through the use of Hmong and American iconography. This exhibit seeks to re/connect and give honor and homage to a strong, self-sufficient, resilient, powerful single working mother in a Western world.

Artist bio

Ger Xiong was born in Thailand and immigrated to the United States as a Hmong refugee of the Vietnam War. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts with an Emphasis in Metals and Jewelry at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Master of Fine Arts at New Mexico State University. His work has been exhibited nationally throughout the United States and published internationally in Australia. He is a Fulbright Scholar who researched and collaborated with Hmong artisans in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Re/fresh

Coca-Cola can, Coca-Cola case, embroidery thread
5" x 5" x 16"
2021
NFS

Mom's Thread

Mom’s thread, embroidery thread, copper, steel
7.5" x 5" x 2.5"
2020
$750

Re/claim

Replicated French Indochina coins, embroidery thread, fabric
23” x 5” x .25”
2022
$2,500

Re/protect

Replicated French Indochina coins, embroidery thread, fabric, steel
11” x 4” x 2”
2023
$1,000

Re/silience

Replicated French Indochina coins, embroidery thread, fabric
18” x 18” x .25”
2022
$3,000