June 16, 2003 – August 15, 2003
Siddhartha Joag & Tomie Arai
Resident Aliens is a mixed media installation addressing issues of race, privilege and the abuse of power. Resident Aliens will feature new work by graffiti/installation artist Siddhartha Joag and public artist, Tomie Arai, in collaboration with Chris Nojima. These site-specific works were created specifically for the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Gallery to foster a dialogue and examine the impact of these issues on Asians in America.
Most of my work deals specifically with domestic labor issues. I am constructing the personal narrative of an individual laborer to represent his steady physical and mental deterioration as he struggles with alienation from his work, his environment, his family and ultimately, himself, a phenomenon common, yet unacknowledged, amidst the underclasses. —Siddhartha Joag
It has been argued that virtual environments are race and gender blind. I prefer to think of the Web as a space where we can reinvent new ways to think about these critical markers of identity. —Tomie Arai