October 26, 2006
JORGE DANIEL VENECIANO
Maria Lau creates photographic images through a technique of in-camera double exposure. There is always a chance of element in the process; the photographer cannot know in advance of taking the exposures how the multiple images will line up in the picture frame-what will stand out, what new pairing will square off against each other.
This technique suitably allows her to explore her Cuban-Chinese-American heritage and the guesswork of personal identity as phenomena of multiplicity and chance-culturally, ethnically, and nationally. The prints in this exhibition are part of the artist’s “71” series, a project motivated by the hope of uniting her Cuban and Chinese family. Lau is currently in the process of tracking the whereabouts of two Chinese aunts. Her investigation has led her from Cuba to China, and now back to the United States, following leads.
The title of the piece Ancestor Search translates the Chinese characters superimposed over the image of her grandfather’s passport, which indicates his arrival in Cuba in 1918. The strong presence of the Chinese in Cuba is evidenced, among other places, in the social clubs that were formed in places such as Havana’s Chinatown. In Say Jo and Ma Vu Lau uses her multiple-exposure technique to document not only the physical signs of these social clubs, but also to overlay photographically their current surroundings and changing context.
Kwong Wah Po takes its name from a Chinese newspaper in Havana. “ This newspaper is considered a cultural treasure in Havana’s Chinatown and carries quite a legacy,” Lau notes. “ The car in this shot was parked on the same street as the newspaper building.” American cars from the fifties, we know, are famously preserved in Cuba. Lau compares the resilience of the Chinese associations in Cuba to the ingenuity of the Cuban people in preserving these now classic automobiles, without adequate resources.
There is an aesthetic felicity between the style of Lau’s work and the reflective nature of her investigations-between the operations of form and content and the layerings they perform. “These projects are more than a personal reflection of my history and culture,” Lau notes. “ I hope to shed light on the interrelation of Cuban, American, and Asian culture through documentation and preservation, while experimenting and questioning reality, identity, and modes of self-expression.”
October 26, 2006
JORGE DANIEL VENECIANO
Maria Lau creates photographic images through a technique of in-camera double exposure. There is always a chance of element in the process; the photographer cannot know in advance of taking the exposures how the multiple images will line up in the picture frame-what will stand out, what new pairing will square off against each other.
This technique suitably allows her to explore her Cuban-Chinese-American heritage and the guesswork of personal identity as phenomena of multiplicity and chance-culturally, ethnically, and nationally. The prints in this exhibition are part of the artist’s “71” series, a project motivated by the hope of uniting her Cuban and Chinese family. Lau is currently in the process of tracking the whereabouts of two Chinese aunts. Her investigation has led her from Cuba to China, and now back to the United States, following leads.
The title of the piece Ancestor Search translates the Chinese characters superimposed over the image of her grandfather’s passport, which indicates his arrival in Cuba in 1918. The strong presence of the Chinese in Cuba is evidenced, among other places, in the social clubs that were formed in places such as Havana’s Chinatown. In Say Jo and Ma Vu Lau uses her multiple-exposure technique to document not only the physical signs of these social clubs, but also to overlay photographically their current surroundings and changing context.
Kwong Wah Po takes its name from a Chinese newspaper in Havana. “ This newspaper is considered a cultural treasure in Havana’s Chinatown and carries quite a legacy,” Lau notes. “ The car in this shot was parked on the same street as the newspaper building.” American cars from the fifties, we know, are famously preserved in Cuba. Lau compares the resilience of the Chinese associations in Cuba to the ingenuity of the Cuban people in preserving these now classic automobiles, without adequate resources.
There is an aesthetic felicity between the style of Lau’s work and the reflective nature of her investigations-between the operations of form and content and the layerings they perform. “These projects are more than a personal reflection of my history and culture,” Lau notes. “ I hope to shed light on the interrelation of Cuban, American, and Asian culture through documentation and preservation, while experimenting and questioning reality, identity, and modes of self-expression.”