For my upcoming show, I was choosing which pieces I wanted to include in my exhibit. I asked the artist community on Instagram, and one of the commenters, Corlett Crafts (check his work out, it’s great!), suggested that I pick my Malaysia art  because of the recent movements of interest in “identity art”. This led me to wonder, “What is identity art?”  and whether my art fell into this category.

Of course, being someone who does not have official or formal artistic training, I went to Wikipedia to find out what this is.

Admittedly, even after researching, I am still not clear on the category. My impression is it has to do with displaying the relationship between the artist and the artwork. It  also tends to have those who are racialized people in it.

I do sense that my Malaysia series does explore this aspect of myself which is regarding the ethnic heritage that I was born into. However, a lot of what I’m seeing on identity art seems to have art that includes images of the artist or other people, whereas my pieces do not seem to have a focal point of people in it. This makes me wonder how much of what an artist makes is intended by the artist versus how the artwork is perceived by others.

Perhaps this relates to the fact that I have always felt slightly uncomfortable with identifying with an ethnicity that I did not grow up in. It is this constant tension of being identified as someone who is an “other”  while simultaneously trying to fit in with mainstream culture of Canada and not draw attention to my apparent differences.  Isn’t identity art one in which the artist embraces his or her identity? How much of my identity, or at least my perceived identity, do I embrace?

This also speaks to the issue of how the art world is dominated by those typically with more power in society. This probably goes some way back to colonialism, but just like this Identity Art category that is something I have never studied and never really quite understood in depth.

It also reminds me of the need for people to classify artists and artworks into categories. For instance, during the mock jury earlier this year, my art was identified as “ Outsider Art”. the labeling of this suggested that somehow there was an Insider and I was not in that “in group”. I still feel somewhat perplexed by this categorization. Maybe they should change that label.

Perhaps an artist’s work should be appreciated by not how it fits into existing categories, but rather how one individual interacts with that artwork. Understanding that every individual comes with their own lived experience, this influences the way in which they interact the artwork. By categorizing art and artists, this fits it into a preconceived perception of what is or is not normal. It simplifies a world that sometimes doesn’t fit in to neat buckets.

Alternatively, maybe I just don’t like labels. If Occam’s razor (the simplest explanation is true) applies then so hold me guilty of this.