Artist Statement

Catherine Chong

05/05/2021

Asians Aren’t the Virus, Racism Is

My social message is that Asians aren’t the viruses in the world, it’s the racism in the world that is. I chose this social issue because I’m Asian, and there has been a lot of news about how Asians are being assaulted in public just because they’re Asian and how they’re now treated differently because they came from China. And I find it absurd that people are thinking that Asians are the reason why people are in a pandemic when it’s not, and I also find it annoying more and more everyday about how Asians these days are being treated like they’re the “virus.”

I chose to use colors red and green because not only did I think that they would pop out but also because I thought of what the colors could represent. Red means that it’s a no-go, representing evil or anger, or something that should be stopped, while green means that it’s good, it’s safe, or like they’re not a danger. So that’s why I chose those colors, I also ended up using yellow because it was the only color that would pop out, since if I used blue, orange, or purple I thought it’d only blend into each other and not stand out as much. I also chose to do squiggly shapes because when I was thinking on how to make my poster stand out, the first thing that came to mind was graffiti, but I couldn’t do that on paper, but then I thought of squiggly shapes to represent graffiti. I feel proud of my poster because it actually came out more simple than I thought it would and I’m happy because I was aiming for simplicity and also because I like the choices I made. Even though I like the choices I made, it doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with them, I think next time, I’d rather use paint because it was a pain using markers.