Q & A with Hold Us Tight artist Ger Xiong

Tell us a bit about your Creative Practice (how do you conceptualize your work? Where do you find inspiration? What kinds of materials do you like to use?)

My work primarily looks at the navigation of cultural identity through my Hmong American experience through the lens of colonization, assimilation, and displacement. Hmong culture and identity has been erased throughout history and my work seeks to document, preserve, and reclaim them by telling our stories and narratives. Throughout my work, I utilize Hmong patterns, symbols, colors, processes in a way that gives homage to my history and lineage of makers as well as what it means to be Hmong, living between cultures and identities within a dominant American space that excludes our history and narrative.

I find inspiration from my Hmong cultural history and background. My work often resembles and comes from Hmong jewelry, textiles, adornment, and objects. Throughout history, our craft has been a way to preserve and tell our stories, some even say that they are woven into our clothing and jewelry. I find power in craft and objects and how we continue to carry these with us after the Vietnam War, as many Hmong people were displaced to Western countries after assisting the US during the war.

I draw a lot of my craft from traditional Hmong craft as well as what it means to be Hmong living in a dominant American nation state. Materials that are oftentimes associated with Hmong craft includes; sterling silver, copper, brass, fabric, embroidery thread, French Indochina coins, beads, and other various materials. I also include other materials that are representative of American; McDonalds (variation of items; napkins, burger boxes, etc), Starbucks, Coca-Cola, football (Green Bay Packers (since I grew up there, sorry Vikings, though I do have an interest in the coloration of football team logos)), American currency (coins). I remember seeing a video of a Hmong silversmith melting silver French Indochina coins when they were in circulation to create jewelry out of the material. I find the subversion of disrupting a material that holds value and power by destroying it and creating something out of it, powerful. I utilize this same process by disrupting these American material spaces by drilling, stitching, stamping those spaces with Hmong patterns, colors, symbols.  

Is there a story that is of particular importance/significance to you? 

A story that is of particular importance to me is my father’s death during our time in the refugee camps. After the US airlifted their top ranked American and Hmong officials, a lot of families were left behind. We had to flee Laos and migrate to Thailand where refugee camps were held. My family made it to Chiang Kham Refugee Camp around the late 80s. 

From what I heard, we had a small convenience store in the camp, selling drinks and snacks and there was a night my father decided to sleep overnight at the store. The next morning, my father heard a knock, went to open the door and was shot in the chest. He passed that day. This was in 1993, where I was born a month after his death and when we immigrated to the US in December. This story is also part of a piece that I created because of a few things. My father fought as a Lieutenant within the Special Guerrilla Units (SGU) for the Americans from 1960 to early 1970s. This story is stitched over the “Hmong and Lao Refugee Deportation Prohibition Act of 2020” that was introduced by Betty McCollum when the Trump Administration began talks of deportation of Southeast Asian people. It is significant because it betrays all of the help, assistance, and sacrifices our families gave to the US during the Vietnam War, only to be deported back to a place that many don’t have memories of and people who were traumatized by the genocide and war. This will also be a part of my artist talk and hope that many of you all will be able to come listen to our Hmong stories. 

What drew you to the concept of Hold Us Tight? 

What drew me to the concept of Hold us Tight was the idea holding tight to history, stories, and narratives that are oftentimes not included in spaces that are predominantly white. Because my background is in jewelry and object based work, more recently into large narrative tapestry, I still find a huge connection to the power of objects and holding those objects closely, especially with jewelry. They hold history and power and as the wearer is wearing the piece around they are carrying the stories along with them for others to stop, think, question, what these stories are. The “us” in here includes various people who are often marginalized and are erased from history books. Holding us tight means creating spaces where many of us are able to tell our narratives and history. 

Tell us about your work with this exhibition. We're displaying Departed, High Personnel Only. 

There is a lot that is happening with this piece, where you can and cannot see. This piece is from my MFA Thesis collection of narrative tapestries in forms of objects and large-scale tapestry. Process wise, I create the narratives on illustrator first, then import different parts of the  narrative into an embroidery machine software, which then digitizes the narrative. I then transfer that over to the embroidery machine, which stitches the design. I then cut each piece out and reconstruct the narrative in relation to my illustrator file. I am interested in how jewelry tells stories through the body, acting as a vehicle in telling stories. This piece comes from a larger scale tapestry, 64 inches in height and 106 inches in width, titled “Departing, High Personnel Only”. This wearable necklace piece can be placed on and off from the tapestry. It questions what narratives become lost as we migrate and move from one place to another. Specifically here, the whole narrative is the last airplane that left Laos. After the US withdrew from the Vietnam War, they departed only their soldiers and high ranking Hmong officials and their families, leaving many, many other people behind, my family included. The necklace departs from the departing tapestry, leaving behind people that helped the Americans during the Vietnam War. I will show the whole narrative during my artist talk in the upcoming days, so please stop by to see more of the story and process of making these narrative tapestries. 

For those who are interested in learning more about Hmong history and cultural stories, is there a particular resource you would direct people to? additional artists, storytellers, authors, or organizations? 

I am fairly new to the area but I can list a few places that I know of so far and hope that can lead them to the right directions. Below are some lists of resource;

• Hmong Cultural Center of Minnesota

• Hmong Museum (they don’t have a physical location but do great work in telling Hmong narratives throughout the community)

• Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT)

• Hmong Village and Hmong Town (there are a lot of Hmong vendors selling traditional Hmong craft and amazing Hmong food here)

If you go to Hmong Village and Hmong town, inside the buildings you can speak to various Hmong artists and vendors who create all sorts of objects and clothes related to Hmong craft and hold a lot of history and knowledge in Hmong history and objects. Here are some artists, storytellers, authors, organizations Koua Mai Yang (artist), Pao Houa Her (artist), Tsab Her (artist), Duachaka Her (artist), Ua Si Collective, HER Publisher (Facebook), Kao Kalia Yang (author).