Press Release
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Media Advisory For More Information Contact: Jan Marlese L. H. Horton Gallery Director (209) 954-5507 jmarlese@deltacollege.edu |
| For Immediate Release 11/13/2015 |
L.H. Horton Jr. Gallery Presents |
| Photographer Pete Pin - Portraits of Cambodian refugee elders - Cambodian Diaspora |
(Stockton, CA) Delta Center for the Arts L.H. Horton Jr. Gallery presents an international photography exhibition, Border Identity: Experiences of Refugee, Diasporic, and Migrant Communities,
November 19 - December 11.
This year’s photography exhibition, curated by Gallery Director Jan Marlese and Photography Professor Kirstyn Russell, presents the work of five photographers examining the experiences of refugee, diasporic, and migrant communities from specific cultural groups. The commonality of each of these movements is represented by people who leave their homeland to live in another country, some temporarily, some permanently. How and why they leave is where the big differences lie. Yet the end result of moving to a new country may cause each to experience issues called “Border Identity.” Border Identity defines how people adapt to their new cultural, physical, political, and economic environment.
The flight of a refugee may be caused by social-political persecution because of one’s religion or ethnicity, an environmental catastrophe, or war and/or terrorism, as seen today with ISIS and the Iraqi and Syrian refugees. Diasporic communities include the well-known events of the African and Jewish Diasporas, where people were physically forced to leave their homelands. The migrant is different. The migrant makes a conscious personal choice to leave their homeland in pursuit of a better life in another country.
Exhibiting Artists
Works on loan from the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD), Finding the I in Diaspora: From the MoAD Archives presents an opportunity to take a closer look at the ways in which the diaspora connects us all. As MoAD celebrates its ten-year anniversary in San Francisco, this series seeks to commemorate the individual histories that have created MoAD’s Face of the African Diaspora mural.
From casual snapshots to posed studio portraits, photography has allowed people to independently record and create their personal and political histories. Through this lens, people have found an increasingly accessible and democratic means of self-expression, representation and affirmation.
MoAD offers programs and exhibitions that showcase the history, art, and cultural richness that resulted from the migration of Africans throughout the world. By realizing our mission, MoAD connects all people through our shared African heritage.
The three works selected for Border Identity include two works by Traci Bartlow from her series, Transformation: Modern Day Stories. In this series, images reflect young African American men from the hip hop cultural movement. The third photograph is by Daniel B. McNeill, called The Promise Keepers March, an image taken at the march on the National Mall in Washington, DC, October 4, 1997. Thousands of men from The Promise Keepers, a Christian men’s organization, gathered to pray, sing and share messages of spiritual unity, with the ultimate goal of working together towards racial reconciliation.
Pete Pin ~ Cambodian Diaspora
Cambodian Diaspora is a series of collaborative diptych portraits of Cambodian refugee elders alongside family artifacts. The diptych-making process seeks to create a discursive space for inter-generational dialogue about the past. Three of the four diptych’s presented in Border Identity were produced in Stockton, in collaboration with the Stockton Cambodian Oral History Project. In addition, Pete will present I AM KHMER (2014-ongoing), a traveling participatory project that explores memory and identity in the Cambodian American community. Through workshops, the project invites young Cambodian Americans, most born in the aftermath of the Killing Fields, to explore, narrate, and map their family journeys from Cambodia. I AM KHMER will be installed live at the opening reception for Border Identity by Pete and participants from the Stockton Cambodian American Community.
Ruth Prieto Arenas ~ Safe Heaven
Ruth Prieto Arenas was born and raised in Mexico City. She studied Communications and worked as a junior account executive in visual media. She was an intern in the cultural research department at Magnum photos in New York in 2011. Ruth graduated from the program in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the International Center of Photography in 2012. She has published her work at Picnic, New York Times Lens blog, Burn Magazine, Lat Photo Magazine.
The images selected for Border Identity comes from Ruth’s project called Safe Heaven. The project presents an extraordinary window into the lives of Mexican immigrant women living in New York. The artist's goal is to create a dialogue about immigration to develop solutions to related social issues. The images reflect the notion of home, intimacy, family, work, and freedom. One focus is on young Mexican women who have recently arrived to the United States. Some of them have indigenous backgrounds so that Spanish is not their first language, and their English is minimal as well. The majority of them have grown up in environments of limited education and health services, and have come to the United States looking for a better quality of life and money to send to their families back home. The images selected for this exhibition offer an in-depth depiction of the working conditions of one of the major labor forces in the U.S.
Stan Radpada ~ The Longest Road
Navy Veteran Stan Rapada (SCPO, USN, Retired) is a member of the International Veterans Alliance, and a Financial Aid Specialist at Delta College’s Leo P. Burke Veteran Resource Center. Stan has dedicated his life to helping veterans. Last year, he was recruited by documentary producers Richard Campos and Matthew Charles Hall to travel to Iraq for work on The Longest Road, a documentary film telling the story of two million Iraqi and Syrian refugees displaced by the terrorist regime ISIS. The film also documents a band of American heroes returning to their former battleground to make a difference. Photographs from Stan’s journey, as well as the documentary film trailer, will be presented in the Border Identity exhibition. His striking portraits of refugees and the refugee camp life bring to light the enormity of this tragedy, and the humanity behind the news headlines.
The Horton Gallery exhibition formats bring in a large groups of artists to present their work, providing greater exposure to diverse styles and media to audiences, thereby extending the educational and creative experience for our students. The Gallery’s primary mission is to support student-learning outcomes in the visual arts curriculum by building knowledge in the aesthetic, technical, cultural and historical context of the visual arts.
Photographer Stan Rapada - Photos of Iraqi & Syrian refugees - The Longest Road
Photographer Ruth Prieto Arenas - The lives of Mexican immigrant women - Safe Heaven
### Digital Images Available Upon Request ### ### |