BROWN PALMS YELLOW BALMS

Reinventing Caregivers of Color

EXHIBITION CO-Presented by AAWAA & Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) for THE 28TH ANNUAL UNITED STATES OF ASIAN AMERICA FESTIVAL

SUBMISSION DEADLINE
January 6, 2025 11:59PM PST

EXHIBITIOn THEME

Can brown palms and yellow balms cure the planet’s deepest wounds? The caregiver—she who opens a newborn's eyes and closes the eyes of the dying—remains overwhelmingly female and disproportionately a person of color. Fate casts Asian American women into a culture of service — as designated amahs, expected providers, overburdened overseas workers, — sacrificial figures dissolving self for the sake of society. The gender bias is familiar; the lopsided burden these women are expected to bear not examined enough.

What new narratives might honor their sacrifices while reframing these stories as ones of empowerment and reinvention? What ancestral wisdom and cultural practices do we accept or violently reject to form contemporary identities?

What do postmodern/postcolonial/ postplanetary archetypes of somatic, psychological, sexual, psychic, spiritual, familial, societal, and ecological caregiving look like?

For Brown Palms, Yellow Balms, we invite artists, collectives, and brave souls to submit visual art exploring themes of caregiving through the lens of AAPI cultural heritage, history, and the socio-political landscape. Proposals for performance art and indiGenius rituals are also considered for limited events programming. Together, we hope to sing a new tune, “Yaya Has A Brand New Bag— and it is Glamorous!” Together we aim to offer a feast for the senses—a visual, gustatory, and olfactory Hot and Sour Soup for the Caregiver's Soul.

Treat us to your wildest visions, your poultices and potions, talismans and taboos, superstitions and spiritual practices, deities and demons. Share your secret recipes, your sacred and irreverent instruments for nurturing, nursing, birthing, mothering, mending, comforting, restoring, resuscitating, protecting, soothing, cheering, reclaiming, and empowering Self, Society, and the Solar System.

ELIGIBILITY

AAWAA will be accepting proposals for artwork from artists who identify as Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, and/or Asian American womxn whose work responds to the exhibition’s themes. Individuals must be at least 18 years old to apply.

SUBMISSION INFO

We welcome original artworks that include:

• Interdisciplinary Artworks (all visual, installation, literary, performance, film, music or sound art genres will be considered)

• Collaborative Works

• Works in Progress with Proposals (submitted in the artist statement, please provide estimated dimensions, must be completed by mid-March)

The submission deadline is January 6, 2025 @ 11:59PM PST.

We recommend that you write your answers on a separate document and copy them onto the entry form using a computer or laptop all at once.

Questions? Send an email to exhibitions@aawaa.net if you have questions or need assistance with your application.

PRESENTATION PARTNERS

FUNDED BY