Flows of Interconnected Motifs

Category: Public Art

Address

345 Jackson St
St Paul, MN 55101

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Flows of Interconnected Motifs

Acrylic spray paint on the Jackson Street parking ramp, St. Paul, MN

Flows of Interconnected Motifs is a collaborative mural combining the symbols chosen by each of the collaborating artists. Referencing issues of misrepresentation and ideas of visibility/invisibility, the vividly-colored camouflage background sets the foundation upon which the collaborating artists have overlaid individual figures, motifs, and compositions. Each artist’s contribution is imbued with its own narrative, reflective of some of the complex and multifaceted experiences of Hmong Americans today. Much like the Mississippi River the parking ramp wall faces, the experiences of Hmong Americans fluctuate and flow as the community shifts over generations and adapts to the various places Hmong communities now call home.
–Vanghoua Anthony Vue

About the mural artists:

Vanghoua Anthony Vue is a multidisciplinary artist whose current practice recontextualises his Hmong heritage within his Australian upbringing and experience, through a postcolonial and critical, arts-based lens and approach. Often employing strategies of mistranslation, subversion, humor, satire, and absurdity, Vue’s work engages with questions of cultural and national identity, place, history, cultural “traditions” and craft, high art and artefact. He is currently undertaking his PhD at the Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia.

Xee Reiter began her infatuation with art in grade school and it has since remained an intrinsic part of her creative life. Her eclectic style ranges from lettering and calligraphy to line illustrations and painting, using various mediums. As a first generation Hmong American, her cultural roots can be found in some of her work. She teaches art to youth at the local school and does henna body art at different festivals throughout the metro. Reiter lives in Saint Paul with her husband, three kids, and two small turtles.
Christina Vang is an art director, graphic designer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Vang’s work is evocative of her experience as a Hmong American woman and tends to be surreal and whimsical in nature. Many of her projects explore human relationships, cultural identity, and reference childhood.

Melissa Vang is a visual artist, photographer, and production/stage manager. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, with a focus on photography, printmaking, and book arts. Her photography was most recently showcased in two exhibitions at In Progress: NEXUS: Honoring the Self-Taught Photographic Artist (2016) and Hmong Tattoo (2017). Her current photography project, F R I D G E S, involves taking portraits of Hmong refrigerators and freezers from all over the world and collecting stories of food, culture, identity, and family. A work from this series was part of the 40th Anniversary We Are Hmong exhibit at the Minnesota History Center.

Nicollazzi Xiong is a multidisciplinary creative designer and visual artist living in Minneapolis, with a passion for lettering, graphic design, and the strong patterning and craft of the Hmong textile arts she learned from her grandmother. True to her Hmong heritage, she likes to convey deep meaning by way of combining symbols, storytelling, and imagery rendered in a colorful but minimalist style.
Shoua Yang’s work is both a reflection of his experience in the United States as an Asian American and a preservation of the Hmong heritage. Yang uses his art to bring to light American social issues and experiences from the vantage of a refugee.

The Minnesota Museum of American Art’s Saint Paul Murals Project is supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge. Additional support was provided by the Saint Paul Foundation and Lowertown Future Fund, the City of St. Paul’s Neighborhood STAR program, PAK Properties, Minnesota State Arts Board, Sherwin Williams, Wet Paint, Griffith University, and partnering organizations like Hmong Museum, Studia H, Center for Hmong Arts and Talent, and Asian Economic Development Association.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.