Anne Anlin Cheng Knihy

Exploring the intricate dynamics of race, gender, and identity, this book offers a poignant examination of the Asian American experience through personal and political lenses. It delves into the lives of Chinese mothers and daughters, addressing themes of ambition, nationality, and the struggle for identity. Blending memoir with cultural criticism, the author reflects on her roles as a teacher, immigrant, cancer patient, and mother, capturing the complexities of grief, love, and resilience amid everyday challenges.

Focusing on the concept of ornamentality, the book presents a groundbreaking theory of Asiatic femininity that challenges traditional views of representation and objectification. By shifting the discourse away from Orientalism, it explores how Asiatic women are portrayed and understood in cultural contexts. This study enriches the conversation around women of color, offering a nuanced perspective that goes beyond simplistic narratives and engages with the complexities of identity and representation.

Titled „Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis“, the 18th edition of MOMENTA Biennale de l’image presents twenty-three artists whose projects activate processes of transformation, mimicry, and mutation. Its goal is to shed light on the dynamics of visibility and invisibility defining the relationships between self and other, between humans and their environment, whether that environment is vegetal, animal, or technological. This publication assembles the descriptions of the exhibitions, an essay by Anne Anlin Cheng on the metamorphic potential of “skin consciousness,” an original portfolio of photographs by Chris Curreri, and an essay by curator Ji-Yoon Han that reflects on the notion of the image through the prism of the Biennale’s theme.