LovingHatingLand

Curated by Xiao Zong

Artists: Siyuan Tan, Han Qin

January 2021 

Homeland is a contested place – a land of love, peace, and shelter, while at the same time a land of hate, conflicts, and oppression. Homeland’s embedded nature of "hospitality" – a term invented by Jacques Derrida (hostipitalité), where hospitality and hostility co-exist – has never been so obvious to people as in the year 2020. Derrida points out that hospitality is always conditioned on the fact that the host obtains powers and the foreigner obeys the rules. Homeland is a term that, by definition, already delimits the host and the foreigner, thus alluding to whose rules shall be imposed on whom. It appears to be a confusing and troubling space for many immigrants, expatriates, or students and businesspeople traveling abroad. The worldwide pandemic has spurred fear, escalated strife, and fueled isolationism. People have found themselves trapped in situ because of skyrocketing airline tickets or various border-closing policies. Where is one’s home, how to return to home, and is home safe? This question defines the experience of the foreigner during the pandemic and interrogates the unquestioned status of the host. This exhibition explores hostipitality as experienced by Chinese immigrants in America.

New York is at the center of this struggle. It has the most diverse population of immigrants in the world, and it has also witnessed severe hostility against them during the time of the pandemic. Siyuan Tan and Han Qin are both Chinese artists currently living in New York. By placing symbols of Chinese culture within the American context and temporality, such as the Great Wall and the Tibetan thangka composition, Tan’s works pose questions about Chinese immigrants’ lacking the of power of the host. Han’s works, on the other hand, explore the unease those immigrants have endured in their search for a new homeland, as well as their resilience in this process. Moreover, the New Growth series that Han created during the pandemic serves as a metaphor for rebirth through this dialectic relationship of hostipitality, as a tree strives to develop new life from its own dying body. LovingHatingLand also speculates on the hope and changes that this dialectical tension brings, not only in New York, but anywhere that people call their homeland.