Katie Mongoven/秋莲 (b. 1995) is a Chinese American fiber artist from Washington, DC, based in Detroit, MI. Her work investigates and fortifies the space between cultural dichotomies through multiple fiber processes. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan and MFA in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art with the Surface Design Association’s Outstanding Student Award. She was a Roman J. Witt Visiting Artist at the University of Michigan, a Windgate University Fellow at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts (TN), and the Barstow Artist-in-Residence at Central Michigan University. Other residencies attended include the California Institute of the Arts, the University of Michigan, and Vermont Studio Center, with a forthcoming residency at Stove Works (TN) in 2025. Solo and group exhibitions include the University of Michigan, Playground Detroit, Riffe Gallery (OH), and ROY G BIV Gallery (OH). She has public and corporate commissions at the Cranbrook Art Museum, PayTile, and Cross River Bank. Her work is held in public collections at Central Michigan University, Summa Health, and MetroHealth and in numerous private collections throughout the United States.
In my practice, I explore the Asian American diasporic experience through the perspective of an orphan and adoptee during China’s One-Child Policy era. Through various fiber mediums, I craft identity reconstruction after loss and displacement. This exploration occurs in what critical theorist Homi Bhabha refers to as the “third space”, the evolving swirl of interaction, negotiation, and contradiction that exists between multiple cultures. I question what goes into this reconstruction. How can losses make us whole? Where do the nutrients passed through the umbilical cord exist in our bodies today? What kind of stories can our hair tell? My current work takes these questions and examines their intersection with current threats to bodily autonomy. The blue and white vessel is analogous to the Asian American objectified body, its racialized, ornamental surface, and its capacity to carry life. In my work, I seek to reclaim and repurpose the historically Oriental and ornamental and emphasize what exists outside and in between the binary. The materials I use are analogs of my own commodified body, an Oriental vessel, “Made in China”, yet crafted for Western consumption.
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