Bio:

Lana Duong is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. She is a private educator for children. She has shown locally, internationally, and is a part of an artist collective that collaborates with international artists. She received an MFA degree in sculpture from Claremont Graduate University and a post-bachelor degree in figurative drawing and painting. Her art is comprised of large hanging sculptures made of plaster, metal, and fabric. She uses opposing material and opposing signifiers to create discomfort and to mirror the dichotomous choices that, we as humans, must make to form our identities in the face of fickle media images and messages.

Exhibition Introduction :

This exhibition is an installation that honors the perspective of the Siraya people in the wake of racial and cultural assimilation. They are people who seek to be seen as an indigenous group with unique cultural practices and history that extends beyond the establishment of Tainan. The Siraya people have lived in the Tainan region for over 400 years, but do not have a written history before this period. The history that is accounted for, reveals a group of people that have struggled to hold on to their identity, culture, and land as they were being assimilated. This exhibition uses themes that grapple with these issues. It utilizes a totem like object (which are traditionally used to display ones familial or cultural heritage), set with the faces of the Siraya people, to reflect an unwritten history that must be reestablished and recognized, in order to honor an indigenous group that has walked this land for thousands of years.