CURRENT EXHIBIT

Curated and Produced by A Place of Her Own for

Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, 500 Palm Drive, Novato, CA

August 10-September 15, 2019.
Regular museum hours: Wed- Fri 11-4 pm, Sat-Sun 11-5 pm

Hungry Ghosts is a metaphor for beliefs that hold you back and family patterns of trauma. What happened to make your family leave your country of origin?

Opening : Aug 10, 2019,  
     Curator's Talk- 3:30 - 4:00 pm
     Reception: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Artists’ Talk: August 24, 2019, 1:00-4:00pm (artists onsite 12:00 pm - 5:00pm)

Last day to meet the artists: September 15, 2019 - 2:00 pm-5:00 pm

Artists: Angela Bau, Avotcja, Cynthia Tom, Frances Cachapero, Irene Wibawa, Julie Anderson, Lisa Rodondi,

Maggie Yee, Manon Bogerd Wada, Natalie Sacramento, Pat Zamora, Reiko Fujii, Sue Tom, Tomo Hirai

“Can you feel them???

They’re sitting in on our everything

The Ancestors are always here…they’re everywhere

Making sure

We’re making sure

Their influence is obvious every time we Open Our eyes

They need us to be aware

They gave their everything for us

They lived & died for us

They smile

Each & every time they see their lives alive in us.”

by Pat Zamora

Focusing on the Family Tree, Root to Spirit is an artistic reflection of the healing in my family patterns, while acknowledging those ancestral hungry ghosts who are yearning for peace, for someone to say enough suffering, there is a better way forward.

Looking through the lens of creating new family patterns/healing my chakras, I will go deeper on family patterns, but from the perspective of what patterns I am putting in PLACE with my family to heal. For this project I have invited my family members to create artwork for the “PLACE Artists binder” (onsite) that shares their healing journey.

Each session of PLACE has been a safe haven to reflect and check in with spirit, meaning and transformation through the creation of art. Art has become life. My tree and its roots have been reimagined, now the work ahead is the practice.  aplaceofherown.org

by Tomo Hirai

by Natalie Sacramento

eQualeSSence

by Lisa Rodondi

eQualeSSence is an expression of my belief that knowing that the essence of my being is equal to that of others allows me to feel connected and whole in mind, body and spirit (equal sign in an inkstick painted Zen circle floating in the sky).  My Hungry Ghost, distorted thoughts of inadequacy or superiority (inkstick marks of the mathematical signs-less than and greater than), try to hold me back (raw silk wrapped paper yarn) from being who I am and my purpose. The thoughts of inequality that tear my sense of connection and belonging stem from a cultural and ancestral belief system which valued people and expected behaviors based on a strict hierarchical system according to age, gender, social class, education level, economic status, and physical attributes.  To disrupt and be released from my Hungry Ghosts, I must recognize that the essence of each of us is of equal value which cannot be diminished or amplified by outside forces.

Where the Light Enters You

by Frances Cachapero

This work  marks my continued investigation of my inheritance as a Pilipina-American. It bears deep scars of ancestral trauma passed down through the ages, induced by centuries of colonial rule (nearly 400 years by Spain followed by an imperialist take-over by the United States at the turn of the 20th century, occupied by Imperial Japan 1942 – 1945). This inheritance is also embedded with ancestral strength, courage, fortitude, dignity and pride.

I pay tribute to all the women of my lineage, some unnamed and nearly forgotten, enduring unspeakable atrocities of countless wars and devastating aftermaths. Where the Light Enters You is my offering to reveal the dark recesses of all our her/his-stories so we and our hungry ghosts may collectively move toward healing our ancient, wounded hearts.  aplaceofherown.org

“The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Rumi

FLYING LESSONS. Inquire Within

by Cynthia Tom

Growing up with a Chinese culture that values the son, but negates the daughter, Cynthia Tom uses art to unravel and address embedded feelings of being invisible and unnecessary. In China, during her grandmother’s youth, she had to horrific job of killing her baby sisters as they were born. This was not unusual and the unspoken trauma continues for generations.

The Yellow Swing

by Sue Tom

In Memory of Sue Tom

1926-2018

Facing Fear

by Reiko Fujii

"Detained Alien Enemy"

by Reiko Fujii

by Maggie Yee

Revelation of my Hungry Ghost lead me to my mother. My parents forbidden marriage was beginning to fall apart after I was born. Recalling the earliest memory of being close to my mother started in my crib. I’m accompanied by a mobile that pose questions to her. After she left our home my young mind couldn’t comprehend the heartache I felt because I missed her.

In clearing out our family home in 2012, we discovered that my father had kept all of my mom’s clothing, since her passing in 1974, at age 44, including her beautiful qipaos; he’d also kept all her documents. My mom, an active Catholic convert, escaped from Shanghai, under the Communists, at age 21, never to return. Catholic connections landed her in England, via Hong Kong & a Vatican passport, where she studied and started teaching. She married my Chinese father in Japan, had us children in Hong Kong, and we all immigrated to the U.S. as refugees. She found support in her faith and religious mentors. Both she and I did not share our adulthood with our mothers; the 3 of us are intertwined by this. We two also share the same name in Chinese, “An”, which means peace. The mahjong pieces of 4 directional winds, represent our life journeys of gain and loss.

Wandering Home

by Manon Bogerd Wada

Wandering Home creates an open space for recovery of missed time and

connection with both loved ones and with oneself by ‘calling them home.’ It is a

place to pay homage to personal hungry ghosts that one wishes to release. The title of this piece is a play-on-words with returning home and a home that may exist in multiple

locations as well as at different times in one’s life. This collaborative, interactive piece was inspired by spirit houses found in Southeast Asian countries, situated outside people’s homes and businesses to offer shelter and appease ghosts from haunting the living. The photos on the jars were gathered from PLACE artists, as self identified hungry ghosts. We invite you to write notes and leave them behind. With the intention of illuminating our hearts’ resilience, we invite you to honor and let go.

by Irene Wibawa

This series of work is based on my family story. I began making these after I finished  A Place of Her Own program in 2016, but its effects continue to reverberate in me long after the program ended. I thank the artists I met through Asian American Women Artists Association, who have made their art based on their family stories firmly placed in historical context for being my role models.

In 2016 I found old family photos that had been forgotten. Since then, I continue to research our family stories with my parents and other relatives, spurred two family reunions, travelled to two other countries, began an online group that includes about 25 other relatives living in 5 countries, and made 25 artworks to date.

by Irene Wibawa

The Bird is a re-imagination of Tan Tjien Nio, my great aunt, the 8th child in a family of 14. She never married, nor had children, and died long before I was born. The relatives who knew her have little information about her, and some say that they're not supposed to talk about her. All I know is that she was a quiet woman, and she was institutionalized in a hospital in Lawang in eastern Java, Indonesia, perhaps for being delusional. She died in either late 1950s or early 1960's in the institution.

I re-imagine her as The Bird so that she can fly away and be free and live in her truth. The top of the cage in which the bird is imprisoned has broken and transformed itself into plants, as a symbol of growth and hope. In this bird and the plants, I hope to heal the wounds of the silenced. In the broken cage, I wish for the captive to be free.

This is dedicated to those were held captive, felt imprisoned, and silenced.

Mixed Media

6 h x 3 w x 3 d feet

A Place of Her Own proudly produces for Marin Museum of Contemporary Art:

Combining intuitive art with truthful stories, women explore ancestral trauma and resilience. 

“HUNGRY GHOSTS” includes artists of multiple generations, ethnic backgrounds and gender identities, highlighting how an artistic exploration of ancestral family patterns shines a light on the monsters in our closets, turning them to dust bunnies, providing epiphanies necessary to heal and thrive in community.