2024/25 MCAD–Jerome Fellow Interview: Ger Xiong

Melanie Pankau
You mentioned your practice explores your Hmong-American experience of personal and cultural grief while grappling with the history of assimilation and colonization. Can you share how these experiences shape your work or a specific project?

Ger Xiong
My work looks at the consequences of assimilation and colonization and how it affects personal and cultural history. I think that grief comes from those consequences and shows up in my work through process, form, and materiality. I often consider the materials that I am working with and how to disrupt it and reclaim my Hmongness onto them. Growing up assimilated into American mainstream culture, I’ve lost a lot of my Hmong cultural roots and language and through this disruption, I am relearning and refinding my Hmong identity within a dominant American space. I think that being able to reclaim identity gives power and agency in our negotiation in navigating our identity.

A project that best describes this idea is my In Translation series where I found cassette tapes of my father telling folktales during our time in the refugee camps in Thailand. My father passed away a month before I was born so I never met him or heard his voice prior to finding these tapes. I listened to the tapes while creating the cassette tape brooches, where I stitched a scene from the folktales as I listened to him tell these folktales on the tape, a total of six brooches. I was curious about my own understanding of the folktales as it was all told in Hmong and also my connections to him, this unknown presence/person that I’ve never met before, trying to find any connections through his demeanor as a storyteller through his voice.

MP You blend traditional Hmong craft particularly silversmithing and textiles with factory made American products to document and communicate historical and generational traumas. I’m interested in this idea of a material as an activist or a disruptor. Can you tell us about the mediums that you work with and how you engage with them to preserve and reclaim the Hmong experience?

GX I have always been interested in the history and representations of materials. When I was doing my Fulbright Fellowship in Thailand from 2019-2020, I became fascinated with the commercialization and commodification of craft. I think there is an interesting metaphor and relationship between commodifying our craft to fit the consumers/interests of tourists to the assimilation process, changing our identity to fit into various spaces. I’m interested in what we lose when we commodify our products and identity to fit into various spaces. And so, I’m interested in using Americana products or materials that hold colonial and historical power as a means to disrupt and reclaim my Hmong identity.

I often work with Coca-Cola cans and products, McDonalds materials, and colonial French Indochinese coins. Throughout these materials, I am cutting them apart, drilling holes into them, and embroidering Hmong patterns, symbols, and colors onto the surface as a way to disrupt and reclaim my Hmong identity on top of the materials. An example of this work is I sat closely and watched it crumble and unraveled, crumbled and unraveled, crumbled and unraveled…. This piece utilizes Coca-Cola cans that were cut into rectangles and have holes drilled into them. The pieces were then embroidered and cross stitched together to create a flat, tapestry like piece, which was then crumbled and unraveled various times. I find this process of crumbling history related to my relationship with erasure and loss as a Hmong person, where the unraveling part of this work relates to the process of refinding my Hmong history and culture. I think there is something interesting about the physical act of crumbling and destruction of materials that holds historical and colonial power.

MP In your practice you use common objects like bibs, cassette tapes, soda cans, brooches as metaphors for colonialism and capitalism. These everyday objects and your material choices embody complex symbols, histories, and human experiences. Could you describe why you choose to work with these quotidian forms and what you want them to communicate to the viewer?

GX As a metalsmith, I am interested in the ways we carry history and culture with us through adornment such as jewelry and clothing. These forms come as a way for me to learn more about my own roots and history as a Hmong American person and also convey stories and narratives to the viewers. For example, I am interested in McDonalds materials as a way to talk about identity within our Hmong diaspora. After the US withdrew from the Vietnam War, Hmong people have been displaced to various countries throughout the world. Through the use of McDonalds, I am interested in how American fast food chains change their food to fit the cuisine of where the McDonalds is; locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. I’m interested in this relationship to our Hmong diaspora and identity on how Hmong person living in the U.S may have similarities or differences to a Hmong person living in Australia. I think that these everyday materials fit into the everyday life and places that we are in and using them can act as an entry point for the viewers to understand and contemplate about the usage of the materials and why it’s being disrupted with Hmong patterns, symbols and colors.

MP You were recently an Arts/Industry artist-in-residence at the John Michael Kohler Art Center. What did you work on while you were in residence? What was the most impactful part of your experience?

GX My recent work includes researching and disrupting colonial French Indochina coins as a way of reclamation. During the French occupation and colonization of Indochina, these coins were being used and circulated as currency. Historically, Hmong silversmiths would melt these silver coins down and repurpose them into our jewelry and silver bars. I am interested in this act of destruction of colonial currency and reimagining and reshaping the materials into our jewelry.

All of the work that I created came from the foundry side of the Kohler factory. The works that I created came from replicated French Indochina coins that were then altered in wax forms, which were then cast in brass and some of them being plated. I created large wall installation pieces that looked at loss and grief, displacement and placement, absence and presence. I wanted to push the boundaries of my work into wall installation and larger sculptural, wearable works. The foundry gave me the opportunity to expand and experiment with colonial coins, the scale of my work, and various processes that I would never be able to do within my own studio.

I think there were a lot of impactful experiences during my time there. I grew up in northeastern Wisconsin and my family would visit Sheboygan, WI every summer when we were kids and would hang out at the beach and swim at Lake Michigan. It was a very powerful experience to go back there as an artist in residence, take up space within the factory and at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center as a Hmong artist and person. With my physical art making, being able to experiment and take risks within my work was another impactful experience along with the people that I was able to work with. Having the studio time to create, think, contemplate was really beneficial to my practice and I appreciate all of the connections that I made and all of the people I was introduced to during my time there.

MP What is the most challenging part of your practice?

GX I think the most challenging part of my practice right now is time. My work takes a lot of time creating. I’m continuously drilling holes into coins, sheets of metals, and various materials so that I can cross stitch on top of them. As we know, cross stitching takes a lot of time to do and because I want to create larger scale works that extend beyond the body, making multiple works has been quite challenging. Though I have been trying to speed up my process of creating, I think that the challenge has given me to sit and contemplate more about my work as I’m drilling holes, sawing, and cross stitching. I really do enjoy the process of creating these works though because I love seeing them start small and become larger. The progression of size is nice and satisfying to see.

MP What artists, writers, thinkers are inspiring you right now? And why?

GX Ocean Vuong - I really love the care that he puts into his writing. He writes really well about identity and loss, topics that I am interested in. The uses of metaphors in his books and collections are amazing. I love listening to podcasts that he is on and the lectures he gives. His lectures are amazing, the way he speaks is astounding, and the way he talks about his work with intelligence and care is something that is really inspiring.

Viet Thanh Nguyen - I really enjoy his writing and his advocacy as a Professor, writer, thinker, and artist. I’m finishing up his “The Sympathizer” book right now after seeing the TV series adaptation. Again, another book that talks about dual identity, the push and pull of the main character's identity as the first sentence in the book states, “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces”.

Pao Houa Her - As a Hmong American artist, I’m inspired by Pao Houa and how she has pushed the boundaries of Hmong photography and video based works into the fine arts world. Seeing her success as a Hmong American artist is inspiring for another Hmong American artist and person to see.

MP What has winning the MCAD–Jerome fellowship meant to you?

GX I’m excited to be a part of the long history of makers, creators, thinkers from the lineage of MCAD-Jerome Fellows. Being supported is such an important part as an artist and having time to think, research, create artworks is such a privilege and I feel really grateful to be able to set aside some time to make new work, think about new ideas, and work alongside a cohort of artists who share similar interests and care.

MP If you could describe your work in one word, what would it be?

GX Longing