I DARE YOU TO BUY ME I & II is performative photo series criticizing the rampant Eastern Asian fetishism culture in the West.
Anglo-based culture has a long history of fetishizing Eastern Asian women, endlessly sexualizing and objectifying, whether it be through stereotypes (‘the submissive Asian woman’), language (‘yellow fever’), and/or mass media (‘the dragon lady’). These images strive to showcase the emotional states of mind having to face this fetishism constantly in the day to day life. Although the imagery in I DARE YOU TO BUY ME may play into the white man’s sexual fantasy, the emotions captured shows the vulnerable discomfort, anger, despair that is felt having to live in this colonial reality.
Specifically made for the 2019 LA ART SHOW, the title I DARE YOU TO BUY ME refers to the commercial aspect of the contemporary art industry, as well as questioning the role of the buyer in context of this work.
