One Way or Another

Contemporary Asian American artists, with a strong sense of being American and an acute critical consciousness of world matters, grapple with issues of identity in a way that sets them apart from their predecessors. Whereas many Asian American artists of a previous generation directly referred to an Asian sense of self in their works, it might be argued that younger Asian American artists only sometimes make reference to it or will omit it entirely. This creatively designed book focuses on recent works by sixteen Asian American artists born in the late 1960s and 1970s, including Patty Chang, Kaz Oshiro, and Jean Shin, to explore this pivotal generation of artists, the prevalent themes in their art, and the different ways they configure identity in their work. The title of the exhibition recalls the 1978 hit recording by Blondie and evokes the vibrant popular culture in which this generation of artists came of age, suggesting an approach to their shifting definitions of self. "One Way or Another" features examples of painting, sculpture, and video and installation art, many previously unpublished, and includes wide-ranging and comprehensive essays that discuss the shifting meaning of Asian America over the last decade and address the issues of mixed heritage and the emergence of an evolving Asian American identity in an increasingly globalized society.