Imin Yeh discusses her artwork, "Paper Mahjong"
To accompany the exhibition Project
Mah Jongg, The Contemporary Jewish
commissioned artist Imin Yeh to create the work Downloadable Paper Mahjong.
The exhibition is on view through October
28, 2014. On September 18, Imin sat down with former Curatorial Associate
Jeanne Gerrity to discuss her work.
 |
| Hand crafted Paper Mahjong set created by Imin Yeh |
Can you tell me a little bit about how you came up with the idea
for Paper Mahjong?
Growing up, my grandmother had a mah jongg
set that I was obsessed with because it was really simple and well-crafted.
When I was older and living in China, I was constantly searching for a set as
beautiful as this one, but all I could find existed somewhere between fake
“antique” sets or commercial glossy new ones. I realized my grandmother’s set was
so beautiful because it was so loved and worn, having been touched by hundreds
of hands. Underlying many of my more recent projects is this idea of making
paper facsimiles of the things you want. That’s the original impetus of this
project: instead of being a granddaughter who designed her grandma’s set, being
a person whose grandchildren would say, “my crazy grandmother built her own set
of paper mah jongg tiles.” When I was working at the Asian Art Museum in their
store, many customers had similar goals of really wanting to get this authentic
and well-made set. You hear the phrase so often now, “It’s crappy because it
was made in China.” Their design for an
exotic and authentic cultural artifact exists in contrast with their
contemporary conception of how things are mass produced in countries such as
China. So the idea with Paper Mahjong is that it’s one hundred
percent free, but you have to make it yourself, putting the labor back onto the
consumer. It’s about the transformation of a free cheap worthless material into
something extremely precious because of the investment of hours.
I’ve always known that Chinese people and
Jewish people were the best of friends. I think that’s because I grew up in a
place where I only had Jewish friends, and it was really clear to me that there
were a lot of commonalities, and one of the things that both cultures shared
was mah jongg. Both mah jongg and crafting have an incredibly social aspect;
they bring people together. To play Paper
Mahjong you build the set with friends. It seemed like the perfect way to
celebrate the friendship between the two different cultures through crafting
together. For the exhibition I redesigned the original Paper Mahjong set with little elements. For example, the background
pattern is the Star of David and the Chinese character for friendship, which is
actually a pattern I developed for an art collaboration with Leah Rosenberg called
Jews for Dim Sum—it’s an older
pattern that we’ve been using for awhile. Then there are different elements in
the suits. For instance, the number suit has both Chinese characters and Hebrew
characters, but what’s omitted is the Roman numerals, which I really like
because you have to learn at least one set of those numbers to play. Also,
instead of the zero dot suit there’s a pomegranate, which is an auspicious
fruit in both cultures.
 |
| Featured exhibition artist Imin Yeh |
Your work often challenges cultural stereotypes. In that context,
how did you feel about the Jewish-American appropriation of the Chinese game of
mah jongg?
That’s a good question! My challenging
cultural stereotypes is more a reaction to the way people want to keep cultures
stoic or dead or unmoving, and not a reaction against new appropriations and genuine,
living ways the culture changes. I’m more critical of the false idea that
mahjong is this ancient Chinese game that can’t be adapted or played outside of
that country. I think it’s funny that a lot of people are shocked that a huge
percentage of the Jewish population plays the game, as if it’s not possible for
non- Chinese to play. I’m definitely more critical of that attitude than I am
of new audiences—this game does not belong to one group or another. For me, the
social history of mah jongg is really about American culture and history. A story of the people who have emigrated to
this country, how culture is passed down generations and across different
communities, and how a game can find new life and bring seemingly disparate people together.
Can you explain the actual process of making the screen prints?
The installation in the show comprises
forty-four individually hand-screened prints showing all of the unique tiles in
a mahjong set. That whole process was the most laborious aspect: redesigning
all the tiles, redrawing everything, and screenprinting them. Constructing the
individual paper tiles is a challenge in and of itself, though I have always constructed
things out of paper. The new design for the tiles is applied to the finished
paper template. Then comes the hard part. All of the tiles need to be
individually cut out by hand and folded and rolled and glued to construct the
full set. This entire process takes
around 13 hours if you are a fast and focused worker. I think Netflix binges
exist to facilitate high endurance crafting.
As part of an ongoing collaboration called Jews for Dim Sum, Imin
and artist Leah Rosenberg will be debuting the last of four limited edition
screenprinted snack boxes made specifically to accompany the exhibition Project Mah Jongg on
Thursday, October 16, from 6 to 7 pm. Visitors can also join Imin in crafting
paper mahjong tiles. Past editions of the snack boxes are available for
purchase at Wise Sons at The CJM.
About Imin Yeh
Imin Yeh received a BA in Art History from
the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005 and an MFA from California College
of the Arts in 2009. She creates sculptures, installations, downloadable
crafts, and participatory projects. Recent projects include a commission from
the San Jose Museum of Art and a yearlong parasitic contemporary art space
called SpaceBi that took place in the Asian Art Museum. She has exhibited at
the Asian Art Museum, Zero1 Biennial, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and
Intersection for the Arts, among many other venues. She was recently awarded a
Eureka Fellowship through the Fleishhacker Foundation, and is a lecturer at San
Jose State University. For more information, visit her website at www.iminyeh.info.
About the Author
Jeanne Gerrity is Associate Editor at Art Practical Jeanne is also a writer, who has reviewed exhibitions for Frieze, Art Papers, Art Practical, and Rhizome, among others. She was a Curatorial Associate at The CJM for two years, and most recently curated Project Mah Jongg.
Comments