Schneider Museum of Art
Boise street performance by
Chinese entertainers
Chinese New Year in Boise
Men and laundry
Rene Yung installation
The Vanishing
Re-presenting the Chinese in the American West
Artists: Rene Yung and Hung Liu
Chinese Influence in Southern Oregon
The Vanishing is a unique study of the history of the Chinese in Idaho. By illuminating facts regarding this lost history, the exhibition hopes to stimulate dialog about the Chinese and their contributions to building the American West. Serving critical roles as railroad workers, miners, business owners, farmers and cooks, Chinese immigrants were a significant factor in the West’s development. By 1870, Idaho had the largest percentage of Chinese population per capita in the nation, comprising nearly 30% of Idaho’s entire population. Today in many western towns and communities this legacy has virtually vanished. This exhibition exposes the history of the Chinese in the Western United States and presents these individuals as vital components of our history and culture.
The Vanishing includes paintings by contemporary artist Hung Liu, an installation by San Francisco-based artist Rene Yung and historic photographs from the region. The large-scale paintings by Liu are a powerful means for exploring memory and truth, loss and recovery. Using historical photographs from local and state archives as the basis for her paintings, these works will make real Idaho’s Chinese population in the last decades of the 19th century. Rene Yung’s installation addresses issues of memory and immigration. Walls of soap imprinted with the word REMEMBER, are slowly dismantled throughout the run of the exhibition as the soap is used by visitors to wash fabric imprinted with words referring to things remembered. As the fabric is washed and hung to dry, both the imprinted words and the soap’s REMEMBER fades away referencing the vanishing memory of the Chinese occupation as well as the Chinese individual’s lost histories.
The Vanishing focuses on the historical significance of the Chinese immigrant in the West and more specifically of their influence and disappearance in Idaho. To compliment the exhibition, and to bring more relevance to our region, the Schneider Museum will be including artifacts from the Southern Oregon Historical Society to illustrate the presence and impact of the Chinese in Southern Oregon. In 1870, the majority of the Chinese in Oregon were located in Grant, Jackson and Josephine counties. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. From that point on, the Chinese population decreased dramatically in the region. As mining opportunities, and work on the railroad was completed, many of the Chinese in our region either returned home to China or relocated to other areas. The presentation of this exhibition provides a venue for our community to learn more about the incredible contribution made by the Chinese immigrant to the development of our towns.
The Schneider Museum’s mission is to serve as a regional resource for the visual arts, presenting inspiring and challenging exhibitions and programs for the educational and cultural enrichment of the general public as well as academic audiences. We serve as the major visual arts resource in a vast, predominantly rural region, isolated from major metropolitan cultural centers.
The Vanishing Page 2
(Rene Yung) The Vanishing Page 3 (Hung Liu)The Vanishing Page 4 (More about Hung Liu) The Vanishing Page 5 (Peter Britt)
The Vanishing Page 6 (More about Peter Britt)
