Today was my second time visiting Nina Katchadourian and Heidi Kumao's art exhibit: Inherited Traits. To my own surprise, however, I had a totally different experience and also a new appreciation for the six displayed pieces. The first, most obvious piece is Nina's Genealogy of the Supermarket. Not only is this piece extremely clever and humorous, but it is also relatable to almost every one of its viewers. Personally, I was able to recognize a large handful of the pieces and found myself laughing at the fantasized relationships between them. You could detect a personality and story from each of the portraits and their frames without any commentary or writing.
The next piece was Kumao's Translator. I discovered a greater appreciation of this piece when I was able to hear the "parents" speak and criticize their child saying things like "go away" or "I have no money." The use of video showed a different personality in each of the parents. One displayed scribbly extending lines that would eventually be erased. I saw this chair as the father, not really knowing much about his child and also not really caring that she is a mystery. The other video displayed a spinal cord that would disappear and be followed by plates crashing. I saw this parent as the mother, tearing down her child's inner strength by criticism or verbal abuse. It was compelling to know that you, as the viewer, was in charge of the decision of which parent to go to. The machinery and materials used gave a dreary and detached feeling as the crank dragged the delicate child back and forth to disappointment.
Katchadourian's Accent Elimination displayed a loss of inherited traits in the way that Nina has never been able to demonstrate her parents' unfamiliar accents. I thought it was really cool that her parents were Armenian because my freshman reading requirement was Black Dog of Fate - a novel about the Armenian Genocide and its effects on future generations. Her final piece The Nightgown Project also had a underlying feeling of a lost part of culture. The aspect that I enjoyed the most about this piece were the "flaws" or missing material. For example: when Nina spent three years trying to find the right location of one of the earlier pictures but decided to leave it blank due to frustration; and also when a year was missing due to the war.
Kumao's last two video projects were extremely moving. The entire display including use of furniture and accessories to the film really added to these pieces as a whole. I remember the story of Frederick Douglas and how he told the slaves trying to escape to follow the "drinking gourd" or the big dipper. Contrary to this, I had absolutely no idea about the Japanese-Americans who were held as prisoners during World War II. This piece went with the theme because of Kumao's heritage of being a Japanese-American. I'm sure that making this project was extremely important to her and exemplified a lot of emotion and pain.
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