TRACY J. GAO
PROJECTS
PROJECTS
As an artist and anthropologist, I try to pursue personal projects to explore various topics. I enjoy challenging myself to reflect on and delve deeper into the diversity of human experiences. I often incorporate my art into my anthropological explorations. Some of my previous projects are shown here.
MONUMENT QUILT - AANHPI SQUARE
I created this quilt as an intern during my Sophomore year of college, and it was displayed on the National Mall alongside 3,000 other survivor stories and messages from allies. In creating this piece, I wanted to question the ways in which gendered and sexual violence have been integrated into many AANHPI cultures and to consider the many histories of violence, fetishization, and trauma that we often remain silent about. As part of the archiving process for the Monument Quilt, my quilt is now on display at the headquarters office of Womankind, NYC.
SHARING IMMIGRANT STORIES
This is a video-ethnogrophy that I created as a final for my college anthropology couse, Vulnerability.
When I imagined this project, it took on a very different shape. I had my sister read excerpts of Shailja Patel's Migritude, and I wanted my friends to reflect on those works. I quickly realized that none of us knew how to talk about our parents and our relationships with them. I resolved to start from the beginning. Personally, I think my real relationship with my parents starts with them telling me stories of their first few years in America. I asked a few of my closest friends about their parent’s stories, and this video was what resulted.
This sharing and re-sharing of this story is an act of vulnerability that transcends generations. Though my video only ended up including interviews with Chinese-American friends, I recognize that this experience is one that is shared by individuals of the pan-Asian community and perhaps by immigrants in general. I wanted to give a concrete space for this guided reflection on what it means for us to carry our parent’s histories as we move through the world.
FULLY LOADED JHU
Fully Loaded was a fun, passion project started by one of my best friends in college. We created interesting flavors of loaded fries and sold them to college students every weekend. I supported the team by creating digital marketing materials and digital art. Through this experience, I learned about the intricacies of Adobe suite software and was able to explore a new medium to create art!
TEDXJHU ARTIST IN RESIDENCY
When curating our events for TEDxJHU, we collaborated with a local artist to feature and highlight their work while creating a cohesive artistic and thematic direction for the event. For 2017, our featured artist was Daniel Stupenagle. He participated in more than 100 exhibitions, and has donated art works in fund-raising for children’s arts education and literacy, housing for the disabled, public television, cancer treatment research and hospice care for terminal AIDS patients, among other worthwhile causes. I was the primary videographer for this video.
MINORITY IDENTITIES IN MAJORITY SPACES
This is a project that I created for my scholarly inquiry tract at Sidney Kimmel Medical College. You can find more information about the project here.
