Notes from the Field Trip to Tacoma
Takuichi Fujii’s art is an interesting window on his life, as all good art should be.
It was interesting to look at how his styles changed through out his life, and it was significant to note the medium changes as well. I found it very significant that there were very few pieces with faces in them. While there are people depicted in his art, they very rarely have faces, so when they do, the faces really stand out. For instance, his work “Grieving Women” creates an even stronger haunting impression when this contrast between his other works is taken into account. I like this artist, and I think that his works will be of great significance in the future.
The idea that efforts have been made to erase the Chinese rail worker from history is really quite disturbing to me. In retrospect, I never did learn about any of this history from a history book. I did learn about it from family stories of how this country has not been a fair place to everyone, something that in retrospect makes this effort to remove such things from history even more disturbing to me. Zhi Lin’s efforts at documenting this history through art, are thus note worthy. I approve of the way that his art was done in such a way to involve the audience as it creates a stronger impact of the message of the work.
The Reconciliation garden is an interesting place, that I will have to spend more time at at some point. This place is built in such a way to facilitate some serious thinking. Which at this point I am still doing. I can not help but think of the timing on when the Chinese were expelled from Tacoma and the timing on the massacres of rail workers that happened in various places around the state. I also can not help but think of the relationships between immigrants and the communities they immigrate to in general. Many things to think of.