PROJECT STATEMENT

Banana Baby is a video triptych that interrogates the absurdity of human-imposed categories, particularly concerning race. Through the work, the project challenges the rigid boundaries and simplistic labels that society often uses to define and divide people. In addition, it responds to the existence of classification in general. Banana Baby is a mixture of multi media, including sound, animation, sculpture, and most importantly, conversation. By employing the familiar and straightforward medium of conversation, Banana Baby underscores the superficiality of these constructs and invites viewers to reconsider, to question any existing beliefs that we attach to in our daily life, in the most regular means.

The project began with the term “Banana kid” or “Banana baby,” which refers to second-generation Vietnamese immigrants described as "yellow on the outside and white on the inside." The term can also be applied to Asians who do not speak their native languages and are immersed in what is termed "white culture." As the research going on, it was taken further by many other terms of discrimination that existed in the world such as yellow peril, act white, pinkerton syndrome, etc. The absurdity of these classifications draws a parallel to Foucault’s example in his book The Order of Things about certain Chinese encyclopaedia, a classification of animals into categories such as (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) stray dogs, and (n) those that from a distance resemble flies—reveals the arbitrary and limiting nature of human categorization.

The meaning as well as visual representation of Banana Baby can be related to the image of a pendulum—where one must swing from one extreme to another in order to find equilibrium at the center. The work exhibits high contrast in both form and content, mirroring the tension between fixed societal categories and the fluidity of individual identity. This pendulum-like movement is reminiscent of Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the Body without Organs (BwO), a body freed from predetermined structures, hierarchies, and functions. Like the BwO, Banana Baby seeks to deconstruct imposed social and cultural classifications, and ask questions about possibility of a new, more open, undefined state of existence.

Banana Baby is made with found materials, which include the cardboard material for the sculpture, the random conversation with strangers, the expanded communication coming after the first part of artmaking. Every step was a stream of consciousness. The artist is the observer and the artwork is the response. From the beginning, this project started with the idea of making artwork about history and its influence on modern society. However, it now condenses into a more specific topic as well as a deeper exploration of how personal identity, memory, and shared experiences intersect with cultural narratives. The artwork captures the fluidity of these influences, evolving into a reflection on how the past continually shapes our present interactions, perceptions, and relationships with ourselves and the world around us in both a straightforward and literal manner.

Ultimately, during the making of Banana Baby, it is essential to answer a fundamental question about the role of art: "Why this? Why now?" In a world saturated with information, where complexities are often reduced to oversimplified narratives, the project advocates for a minimalist approach: "All we need is less." This mantra encourages the audience to strip away the excess and focus on core human experiences—those that unite us rather than divide. By presenting a dialogue that is both intimate and humorous, the triptych lays bare the contradictions and redundancies inherent in our current social categorizations.

BANANA BABY

Info

❶ project ❷ artist ❸ development ❹ artwork

❶ project ❷ artist
❸ development ❹ artwork