Shani Lam

‘All Asians Look The Same Same, But Different’

Painting

Acrylic on wood

5 paintings

My body of work is a satirical take on the derogatory racial stereotype suggesting that “all Asians look the same”, in order to critique the prevalence of racism in society and illuminate the sheer ignorance behind the phrase. Each wooden panel depicts an Asian woman from the 5 geographical regions of Asia (meaning East, Central, West, South and South-East Asia). I chose to represent this idea through portraiture based on real-life people, as this allowed me to establish their physical appearances as the focal point of the work. Acrylic painting, as a conventional approach to art marking also required me to manually mix and use a variety of skin tones, where realism relying on the manipulation of colour further highlights this notion of diversity.

The conceptual intent behind my BOW is to blatantly attack the stereotype in an ironic manner, by capturing the heterogeneity of Asian women. Their neutral facial expressions and seemingly nude appearances allude to this, because even when posed similarly and equally stripped down to their bare selves, they are all still inherently different. Their heads also appear to be turned inwards as though they are gathered together in a sort of 'power pose/stance', which is done deliberately to question and potentially reprimand the audience's perspectives. This also subverts ideas of Asian women being typecast as weak and submissive - contrary to dominant beliefs exacerbated by their hypersexualisation in some pop culture and media. This feminist take is presented through my choice of only painting Asian women and having them stand together in solidarity, with almost unamused facial expressions to stare the audience down - thus reinforcing their humanity (as opposed to objects of fetishisation) whilst still celebrating their beauty.

Furthermore, the gloss varnish text, “same same” laid over the work is derived from the popular phrase “same same, but different”, acting as the conduit for the satirical attack on the original stereotype - as it again presents the 5 women as similar, yet still distinct individuals. The text also serves as a symbol of racism against Asians, appearing to be embedded within the work in the same way in which racism is normalised and ingrained within everyday society. As the text will only be visible with certain lighting/at certain viewing angles because of the varnish’s transparency, it suggests that such covert racism can only be truly exposed/dealt with when we shine a light upon it and are open to adopting different perspectives. The clashy nature of having outright offensive text presented in a subtle manner illustrates racism’s inextricable and subconsciously disruptive presence in society, often distorting our view of Asians which, in turn, can be damaging. This tension and antithesis can also be seen within the title - as it is a play on the stereotype and catch-phrase, both written in verbatim, where the latter contradicts the former. Thus, I hope for my work to serve not only as a disruption to an offensive stereotype, imploring people to recognise the issue and reflect on their views, especially with the recent surge in Asian hate crimes around the world, due to COVID-19 - but also as an inclusive representation of unity and empowerment for all Asian people.

Influencing Artists: Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Liseth Visser