Emerald Repard-Denniston

Granola Gworl

Granola Gworl

“Placed into a vibrant trickery of idyllic settings from childhood and adolescence, the large-scale paintings immerse the viewer into auto-ethnography. The depiction of Asian femmes taking up unsympathetic space are placed into the political landscape of the West Coast. I reference Jin Me Yoon’s work to understand and question who belongs when we have an “In-between” identity? The figures challenge the land they occupy, complicit yet troubled by the colonial land that they settle on. The Asian femme is faced with navigating the intersections of their identity, fluctuating between the oppressed and the oppressor. I reference and pay recognition to the influential Asian artists that come before me; Yue Minjun, Amanda Ba, Sasha Gordon, Jin Me Yoon, and Zeng Fanzhi. Transgressive, I personify the different aspects of the similar-statured figure to understand the historical context of Chinese culture and history critiquing the idea of the “liberated individual”. I bounce off Yue Minjun’s conceptual use of duplicated selves and exaggerated facial expressions.”