Original post from my page, @laurajew_art on Instagram
Dear fam,
Just last week six Asian American women were murdered by a racist, misogynistic white man. Since then, I have been grieving not just their lives, but the collective experience of my Asian sisters who too often feel invisible, dehumanized, and unheard by the greater whole. This reality is a historical one, fueled by institutional and colonizing exploitation seeking to profit from our bodies and our lives.
When I sat to consider what resistance might look like, the words ‘empowered’, ‘loud’, ‘safe’, ‘heard’, ‘seen’, and ‘autonomous’ came to me. What would it look like for Asian women to have full agency? What would it look like for us to be fully valued & witnessed in all of our truths? What would our collective experience look like if we were the ones writing the script? These questions led me to a strong desire to see Asian women through our own lens. To see us portrayed as we want to be portrayed.
This week, I am launching the series #visible. This series of portraits of Asian women (this includes our trans and femme sisters) will feature an image of themselves of their own choosing & a short interview. My goal in this series is to give a spotlight and a voice to Asian women, who have too long been filtered through the lens of objectification and fetishization. It is a reclamation of our visibility with all our fierce and beautiful truths. I haven’t done a self-portrait since high school, but I felt strongly that the first person we need to be seen by is ourselves. I invite other #asianartist s to do the same.
#Asianwomen , if you are interested in participating, please DM me a front-facing portrait of yourself when you are feeling most empowered, most yourself. I prefer pictures without smiling (this can sometimes look weird in portraits), but if it feels most you, I’m not here to argue.
#AsianAmericanAllies, #Asians , please share this if this speaks to you. Let's reclaim our visibility.
Love,
Laura