2022/23 51±¬ÁϹÙÍø¨CJerome Fellow Interview: Peng Wu | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

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2022/23 51±¬ÁϹÙÍø¨CJerome Fellow Interview: Peng Wu

By Melanie Pankau on May 05, 2023
Image
A collage of 25 images, consisting of one person per picture posing with an item of theirs.
CarryOn Homes, 2017-present
Photography and audio recorded interviews
Photo by Shun Yong

In this interview, interdisciplinary artist Peng Wu weaves together deeply personal experiences as an Asian queer immigrant with the history of alien labor in North American colonialism in order to challenge the oppressive narratives and foster healing, liberation, and resilience.

Melanie Pankau: You describe yourself as an interdisciplinary artist and designer that collaborates across disciplines and cultures to create participatory art installations to address various urgent social issues including immigration, health disparity, and queer rights. Could you tell us more about your practice and the contemporary art strategies you use to talk about these topics in your work.

Peng Wu: As an interdisciplinary artist and designer, I explore strategies that effectively create spaces fostering alternative modes of knowing¡ªknowing oneself, other human or non-human beings, history, and most importantly, the relationships among them. The way we think is constrained by the physical spaces society has designed: classrooms, galleries, city streets, and parks. These spaces subtly influence our eagerness to engage in dialogue and the subjects we touch upon, thus perpetuating the oppressive nature of the system.

Drawing from personal struggles, including growing up queer in China, immigrating to the U.S., and dealing with chronic sleep disorders, I strive to create public spaces that center on marginalized communities, oppressed histories, and voices, hopefully contributing to a more just future. Exploring strategies such as interdisciplinary collaboration, collective artmaking, community building, installation, and performance, my practice prioritizes the integration of art into everyday life and emphasizes that these approaches extend beyond Western contemporary art. Artmaking serves as a means to understand the personal, social, and historical root causes of our collective struggles and to create spaces for sharing this knowledge, ultimately fostering opportunities for healing, liberation, and resilience for those who share similar experiences.

Two images, the left image of a person holding a paper up containing a red block illustration, the right image of people together in a room.
In one of the Jin Paper Burning participatory events, I created a print with the image of me and my now-husband on one side of the street; my father sits in a wheelchair on the other side of the street. Through the spiritual ritual I ¡°came out¡± to my father after he passed away.
An image of a white tent inside a blocky building.
Daydream Chapel, 2019
Yarn strings
16 x 35 ft
Photo by Boris Oicherman

Daydream Chapel intends to create a spiritual and sacred space that centers the very basic human need: rest. In the context of our increasingly restless culture, Daydream Chapel facilitates the simple but profound posture of laying down - an iconic posture of Reclining Budhha commonly seen in many Asian countries. The posture symbolizes the ultimate peace and the in-between status of conscious and unconscious, life and death. Through practicing this buddha posture in this dedicated space I hosted regular public events to have restful conversations with sleep doctors and participants.