Tiffany Chung: indelible traces

Vietnamese American artist Tiffany Chung pointedly reveals histories that have too often been overlooked or intentionally ignored. Chung is attuned to the ways that knowledge replicates power, erasing as much as it records. Seeking to fill in the gaps left out of official reports, she draws on the Japanese concept of ma, the emptiness or space between things, to challenge historical narratives written by those who hold power or influence. She incorporates statistical data, extensive archival research, and documentation with people’s lived experiences to reconstruct more complete stories of historical events and to create new systems of representation that include what has been left out and what remains unknowable.

Chung investigates landscapes and migratory networks marked by climate change and wars, colonialism and nation building, post-industrialization and urbanization by tracing the relationships between living beings, the built environment, nature, and forces of power. She mines the histories of single sites to reveal systems of power and cycles of transformation—natural or humanmade, resilient or destructive—across stretches of geological time. Conversely, she traces the complex interconnections of people, animals, cultures, flora, and fauna as they move around the world. Together, her projects unravel the often-hidden entanglements of history, politics, economics, and ecology that accrue in landscapes, shape networks, and spark conflicts.

This exhibition, the first comprehensive survey of Tiffany Chung’s career, showcases the intricately drawn or embroidered maps that she is best known for alongside her sculptures, videos, performances, and installations. Bringing together traces, fragments, and voices that have been silenced, her art questions not only how history is told but also who tells that history, who belongs within it, and who and what are excluded. Ultimately, Chung utilizes this reckoning with history to powerfully inform our future actions.

Tiffany Chung: indelible traces is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara and is curated by Orianna Cacchione.

Museum Hours:
Wednesday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

Weisman Art Museum
333 E River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455