Willful Dialects
Curated by Yi Cynthia Chen
Willful Dialects considers spoken, visual, and felt languages and dialects through the lens of a selection of Asian-American and Asian Diaspora artists working in and around Boston. An anti-survey, this moment in time intends to refuse a monolithic descriptor of what it means to be Asian in America today.
The term “Asian-American” itself was coined in 1968 by Bay Area students and activists in part to foster camaraderie between ethnicities and reject the derogatory term “Oriental.” This concept of the Oriental as a fantasy constructed to maintain power dynamics was explored deeply in Edward Said’s seminal 1978 text Orientalism. Said noted that Orientalism is “willed human work.” Edward Said was a Palestinian-American writer whose work makes up some of the foundational texts of current Asian-American studies. Full exhibition statement here ︎︎︎
04.26.2025–05.24.2025
Included artists:
Qais Assali, Lani Asunciòn, crystal bi, Yi Cynthia Chen, Ajinka Dekhane, Jen DeLuna, Feda Eid, Sara Elbashir, Lucy Kim, payal kumar, Hamed Noori, Loretta Park, Samnang Riebe, Sopheak Sa, IMAGINE aka Sneha Shrestha, Monica Srivastava, Joanna Tam, Vivian Tra, Ravinda D Wibowo, Yu-Wen Wu
Included artwork in the exhibition
ទង់ក្របើ (Never Let Me Go), 2025. Screenprint on nylon, sheer fabric, metallic thread, wooden dowels, dyed yarn, 36" x 180"
Credit
Installation views, Willful Dialects, No Call No Show Gallery, Boston, 2025. Photos by Yi Cynthia Chen.
Left: Yi Cynthia Chen; right: Jen DeLuna
Left to right: Loretta Park, Yi Cynthia Chen, Sopheak Sam
Left: Yi Cynthia Chen