Cynthia Tom’s “Discards & Variances” Is Featured at Rutgers Exhibit – Living in the Shadows: Underground Immigrant Communities

January 17 – April 7 2017  Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries-Douglass Library, Rutgers University (8 Chapel Drive, New Brunswick, NJ 08901)

Gallery Hours:  Monday – Friday 9 a.m. – 10 p.m.

Artists:
Pam Cooper, CERRUCHA, Lauren Everett, Sandra C. Fernandez, Cynthia Tom, and Gesche Würfel
Reception and Artists Discussion
March 1 , 2017 ▪ 5-6:30pm.

Cynthia Tom, a 3rd generation Cantonese American and native San Franciscan, has been working on little pillows representing discarded people in her life, her mother, her father and her grandmother. Cynthia’s grandmother was sold in 1923 and brought from China to SF as a second wife (servant).  As a pre-teen, Sue, Cynthia’s mother was traded for opium by her father and sexually abused by the dealer for many years.

Cynthia believes these stories of trafficking and abuse were common in the Chinese immigrant community and reflect stories being played out in the new immigrant families today. The pillows are a contradiction in sweetness that depicts heartbreaking subject matter, inspiring impactful shifts of emotions in the viewers. Although the images are vintage, the problem is currently an epidemic in the US.

http://www.cynthiatom.com

Flickr photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHskBjfwwE

Join her on FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/cynthiatomart