Frictions of Difference: Transcultural Reimaginations, Reinterpretations, and Reconsiderations in Contemporary Visual Arts

Abstract

This arts-based research investigates the ways in which contemporary transcultural artists (a category in which I include myself) have harnessed the frictions and tensions of cultural difference to develop their practices. Transcultural artists are understood in this research to be those who experience, adopt, and work across multiple cultures based on their heritage and upbringing. Two examples of such artists are Australian Aboriginal Tony Albert and Vietnamese-American Dinh Q. Lê, who are discussed in this exegesis. Both artists leverage cultural difference to create artworks that offer alternate and deeper understandings of identities, and reveal forgotten or neglected voices and narratives of the past. They work across multiple platforms and spaces, highlighting the important role transcultural visual artists play in broadening definitions of art, artmaking, and art audiences. This exegesis draws on postcolonial theories, artistic fields, and cultural and historical contexts to contextualise my studio outcomes, including the history of Australian national identity, the series of events that led to my family’s migration to Australia, and the continued representation of Hmong as Other in Australia and the diaspora. As a first-generation Hmong-Australian, I have often felt the strain of cultural difference. Rather than dissuade or resolve the frictions and tensions of cultural difference, I have used these productively within my arts practice. The works I have produced throughout my doctoral candidature reimagines tropes of Hmong-Australian identity in ways that are playful and inclusive of my lived experiences. I have also reinterpreted past events associated with my family’s experiences of war and migration, drawing on personal memories, my father’s oral stories, family mementos, recorded documentation, and artefacts. To circumvent being pigeonholed as an ‘ethnic’ artist, I have worked across multiple disciplines and expanded my role as an artist by positioning my work within traditional and non-traditional art exhibiting spaces and contexts. These outcomes have reached those who are often marginalised by art institutions, as I have engaged them in both making and viewing art.