Soft Solidarity (SoS) - Uniting to Protect, Heal, and Empower
A group exhibition presented by A4 and Pearl River Mart at Chelsea Market from May 14 – June 6, 2022 and the Pearl River Mart Gallery from May 18 – August 28, 2022.
By Asian American Arts Alliance
Presented by A4 and Pearl River Mart
To celebrate AAPI Heritage Month, A4 and Pearl River Mart presented Soft Solidarity (SoS), a multi-site group exhibition at Chelsea Market curated by Joyce Yu-Jean Lee.
What does it mean to be "soft"?
Lee, an experiential artist and Assistant Professor of Art and Digital Media at Marist College, the show brought together six AAPI women artists whose practices conjure and revel in feminine strength.
Featuring art by aricoco, Suejin Jo, Natalie Nakazawa, Sui Park, Lu Zhang, and Lee, the exhibition showcased works that revive colorful cultural crafts passed down from mothers and grandmothers, honor lost loved ones in reflective memoriam, and celebrate organic feminine forms and textures.
Zhu Que Lamp (2022-06) by Lu ZhangAsian American Arts Alliance
What is "soft solidarity"?
Coined by sociologist Mervyn Horgan, “soft solidarity” describes a kind of loose unity that is unconstrained by a common background, location, or socioeconomic status.
"Soft solidarity is not a concrete allegiance. It's a loose sense of unification, usually informally negotiated in situ," says Yu-Jean Lee. "I also was thinking about the political notion of soft power, about being diplomatic rather than aggressively carrying a big stick to reconcile conflict and woo opponents. Moreover, all these artists' works I selected are soft ... Their shapes are organic and loose. So the show is about organic, genteel yet strong Asian solidarity in a time of trial."
Feminine power
The works are simultaneously soft yet strong, pliable yet powerful, delicate yet potentially dangerous, empowering yet comforting. Together, they formed a “soft solidarity” with one another.
Seeing Asian America as "soft"
The term “soft solidarity” also describes a kind of loose unity that is unconstrained by a common background, location, or socioeconomic status.
Soft Solidarity at Chelsea Market (2022-06)Asian American Arts Alliance
Celebrating craft as feminine practice
"Curating this show and thinking about women's craft has led me down a path of discovery," says Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, curator.
While the works in the exhibition did respond to this particular moment of adversity, they are also timeless. Viewers were invited to enjoy, learn, and listen. They were asked to reflect upon histories but also to consider current pressing needs.
aricoco
aricoco uses the metaphor of insect colonies, specifically matriarchal communities like ants. Her wearable sculpture asks questions about how Asian Americans might protect one another from external aggression, and how they might cooperatively care for one another.
Natalie Nakazawa
Natalia Nakazawa's work centers on tapestries and watercolors of vessels, and wrestles with historic symbols and metaphors that represent colonization of Asia. What value has the west placed on Asian cultures, commodities and civilizations?
The title, Soft Solidarity, abbreviated as SoS, is a kind of public call to the community at large: to take a stand against discrimination, hate, violence, to help fight inequality and exclusion, to support safety and look out for those in need, and to create a community, wherever you may be.
Soft Solidarity (SoS) was curated by Joyce Yu-Jean Lee and presented by Asian American Arts Alliance and Pearl River Mart.
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