Portraits of Self and Other: SlutForArt and the Photographs of Tseng Kwong Chi

In a black and white photographic self-portrait taken in 1979, Tseng Kwong Chi stands alongside the Statue of Liberty (Fig. 1). He wears what he called his "Mao suit," a uniform reminiscent of the Chinese Communist Party. Both Tseng and Lady Liberty appear in 3/4 view. Tseng's face is expressionless, an effect aided by the reflective sunglasses he wears. His left hand rests casually in his pants pocket; his right hand holds the cable release, which triggers the camera's shutter. White fluffy clouds fill the sky. The crop of the photograph eliminates any other figures; since there is no way to determine scale, Tseng appears larger than the statue. The photograph's point of view comes at a low angle, adding to the effect and giving Tseng a slightly menacing air.

This photograph is the single most recognizable artwork by the photographer Tseng Kwong Chi, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1990. The image is reproduced on the covers of two major books in the field of Asian American Studies: Asia/America: Identities in Contemporary Asian American Art, edited by Margo Machida, and Tokens: The NYC Asian American Experience on Stage, edited by Alvin Eng. ¹ The latter volume contains the text to SlutForArt, a theatrical performance created by choreographer and dancer Muna Tseng (who is Tseng Kwong Chi's sister), with director Ping Chong (

Fig. 2). In SlutForArt, Muna Tseng weaves a performance tribute to her deceased brother, shuttling back and forth between Tseng Kwong Chi's personal life and his artistic career. The entire performance is overlaid with Muna Tseng's own artistic expression of dance and spoken word, which incorporates roughly three hundred projected images of her brother's photographs. This essay examines the works of both siblings, their connection to each other, and the ways in which they complicate issues of autobiography, solo performance, and Asian American representation.

Although Tseng Kwong Chi's photographs are technically self-portraits, they are not representations of Tseng the artist as he was known by his family, friends, and colleagues. Rather, they are portraits of a persona created by Tseng as an art object that resonates with the representational history of Asian Americans. This persona is specifically an "Other," a product of the colonial perception of non-Western peoples as strange and different from their perceptions of themselves. The labeling of someone as "Other" implies an unequal power relationship, where the one being "Othered" is oftentimes perceived as inferior, or at best "exotic." In his groundbreaking study, Edward Said has linked this practice of Othering to the discourse of Orientalism; he has described how the Orient is one of Europe's "deepest and most recurring images of the Other." ² It is important to keep in mind that these images do not tell accurate tales of the lives they purport to represent. Rather, they often reflect the fears, anxieties, and desires that Western Europeans (and later Americans) projected onto the non-white peoples they encountered. Because the term "Oriental" has been used for the purpose of "Othering," it has been used to describe a wide range of ethnicities, including people from the Middle East, Asia, and northern Africa. In the United States, the term has often been used to refer to Asians and Asian Americans. However, in the 1960's and 1970's, activists invested in identity politics denounced the label of "Oriental" that carried a long and violent history of cultural imperialism and discrimination and struggled to achieve a sense of self-definition, and the term "Asian American" was born out of that struggle. ³ Although the term also incorporates a wide range of ethnicities, it provides a way for people of Asian descent to define and re-invent themselves, building coalitions based on common experiences in America. Even so, the term cannot completely escape the discourse of Orientalism...