Mustang Tonygallery
Multi-color gum bichromate on rice paper, cotton, gold sumi ink, stainless steel pins
60”x44”x4”
2025
I’ve carried around this photo with me that since I was 15. My father is posing behind a red Ford Mustang. He stands in contrapposto, right arm extended and hand firmly on the trunk of the car and left on his hip. He’s well dressed and exuding the natural coolness that he was known for. It wasn’t until I reinterpret family photos that I started to understand that this was a photo he sent back to Taiwan to show his family that he was doing well. This wasn’t his Mustang but just by posing with it shows prosperity. I printed this image of him hundreds of times in response to wanting to not lose memories of who he was.
In the process I created new discourse around my photos of him. It also began research of photos of immigrants, especially young men from Asian in the United States in the 1960s onward, and how they communicated with their families back home through photos of them in the new land.
Installation photos from Sacred Reverie at Kenilwoth Square East Gallery, April 2025