Project Description:
Wendy Maruyama is an internationally celebrated maker of art furniture, sculpture and installations.
The exhibition contains three integrated segments. The first is a recreation of 120,000 paper tags which have been strung together in lines about 10-12 feet long, and then grouped into ten large assemblages which are suspended from the ceiling. Each group represents the residents of one of the ten major Japanese and Japanese American internment camps during World War II.
The second segment will contain original artworks designed by Maruyama to illustrate the harsh physical and psychological conditions endured by the internees between 1942 and 1945. The works will range from cabinet forms to sculptural works made of wood and mixed media .
The third will consist of archival photographs and objects from the collection of the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego (JAHSSD), which will provide tangible evidence of the living conditions in these camps.
Description of the exhibition:
The tags: Suspended from the ceiling to a height of 6" off the floor, the ten 12' towering forms, representing 120,000 individual people, create a powerful emotional impact. Each individual’s name, identification number, and name of destination camp have been handwritten by thousands of volunteers on Kraft paper tags, which have then been aged to appear like the few well-worn tags that still exist. On evacuation day, which varied throughout the state, the tags were worn on people’s clothes and put on their single suitcase.
The artist’s original artwork:
The body of work to accompany the exhibition has been in progress since 2008. This includes a series of ten pieces (Butsudan[i]) which enshrine the memory of each camp. All of these are wall mounted works. There will also be a piece commemorating the Regiment 442[ii].
Historical photographs and artifacts:
The Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego (JAHSSD) is loaning following materials to the artist to provide context for the exhibition. The objects will be arranged as part of the art exhibition. These objects will include some of the following:
1. Enlarged reproductions of photographs of the relocation of Japanese Americans in 1942.
2. Furniture and objects of daily living made by internees 1942-45 to ease their life in camp.
3. Original camp newsletters, school annuals, church materials, and other printed documents.
4. Military uniforms, medals, and ephemera from Japanese American men who served in the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II.
Related activities: panels, talks, oral history collection, education programming, films (Cats of Mirikitani)
Timing:
Exhibition to run for a minimum of 8 weeks, up to 3 months. If the time period spans February 19 the host museum could plan an event acknowledging Day of Remembrance, where Japanese Americans remember the signing of Executive Order 9066 by which the President authorized their removal and detention away from the West Coast.
Host Museum to provide:
Exhibition space, lighting, and display cases if available. (please note: the ceilings in the space must be a minimum of 15' in order to display the Tag Project adequately)
Use of museum preparators to assist Maruyama in installation.
Meeting space for jointly-sponsored events.
Assistance with publicizing the exhibition.
An opening or closing Reception.
Staffing/docents at Museum.
Security.
Maruyama will provide:
Exhibition content and interpretive text panels.
Attendance at exhibition opening or closing and training session for docents and museum staff.
Public lecture.
Qualifications and Background:
Maruyama is a California artist, an educator (San Diego State University 1989-present, California College of Art 1985-1989), and has been working in her field as a craft practitioner for over 35 years. Her work is known for its deviation from the traditions of studio furniture, and is in the collection of major national and international institutions. Her resume and information can be seen on her website, http://www.wendymaruyama.com
Maruyama's work prior to the new "Executive Order 9066" series had taken on stylistic influences from Asia. Her many travels have taken her to Korea, China, and Japan: these trips culminated in series of work that addressed ethnicity, gender, and identity as an Asian person. Her several pilgrimages to Japan resulted in different perspectives of her cultural heritage. At times reverent of Japan’s craft history and advanced technology, and appalled by Japan’s self-indulgent, materialistic and almost faceless and patriarchal society, her works vacillated between objects that emulated or satirized contemporary Japan.
As a third generation (Sansei) Japanese-American, Maruyama experienced firsthand the shroud of secrecy imposed on the internment years by those of her parents' and grandparents' generations. While researching the details of the internment, she discovered that many of the internees created art as a respite from boredom and isolation. Some of these items were functional, and others were purely beautiful. Both types enabled the artists to endure the desolation of the camps. This resonates with her in many ways: as a deaf artist, she turned to art making as a form of expression and communication to compensate for her disability.
The Tag Project was borne out of this research and studies of Dorothea Lange's documentary photography of the internment years, while Lange was working for the War Relocation Authority. Lange's photos took on a passionate view as an outsider towards what was happening to the Japanese Americans. Maruyama was also struck by the many photos of taken of entire families being taken away to unknown destinations, all of them wearing paper tags with their names and ID numbers issued to them during the evacuation.
While Maruyama has created other artworks relating to the internment, planning for the Tag Project has enabled her to make connections with the Japanese American community in San Diego and around the state. The Tag Project has been used as an advocacy tool and community-building event at the Manzanar and Tule Lake CA pilgrimages, and at high schools, colleges and universities in both Northern and Southern California. The Project also moved outside of California, with Tag Project events taking place in Washington D.C. (Renwick Gallery), Tennessee (Appalachian Center for Crafts) and Arizona (Arizona State University in Tempe). Individual volunteers have assisted the Tag Project from all across the country. It is Maruyama’s hope that this project will enable others, both Japanese Americans and especially the broader community, to make connections with each other and to begin discussions about the impact of the internment on each other and the United States in general.
For most of Maruyama’s life, she avoided discussing her own family’s experiences as Japanese Americans who were evacuated from the West Coast. She knew that her mother and her family were uprooted from a life of relative comfort and security and forced inland with no place to go. Being a newcomer in a city sensitized by the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor must have been painful, but their experiences were never discussed. Her grandparents are now gone, and Maruyama regrets not asking the questions she now has.
The Tag Project has enabled Maruyama to talk with her parents about their memories, and to understand more about Japanese Americans who were impacted by the internment years. Her goal is to help others learn more about the personal experiences and costs of the evacuation, about which not much is taught in California schools.
Most importantly with the sensitive issues of racism built around the events of 9/11, and now the recent implementation of immigration laws in Arizona, one cannot be complacent and think that this would never happen again.
[i] The butsudan is a shrine, in the form of a wooden cabinet, commonly found in temples and homes in cultures. These cabinets are commonly seen as an essential part in the life of a traditional Japanese family as it is the centre of spiritual faith within the household, especially in dealing with the deaths of family members or reflecting on the lives of ancestors.
[ii] The Regiment 442 was an Asian American unit composed of Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during World War II.
