Asia Society Triennial Part Two is a Mixed Success

By Vivian Chui

New York City's Asia Society Museum ushered in the spring season by unveiling the second and final chapter of We Do Not Dream Alone (26 March–27 June 2021), an inaugural triennial aimed at highlighting the diversity of ideas and practices found within contemporary Asian art.

The exhibition comes at a moment of profound anxiety for the Asian American community. Faced with increasing xenophobia and violence, one can't help but embrace the space for inclusivity with renewed fervour. That said, the Triennial—as a major presentation by an institution entirely dedicated to promoting discourse around Asian culture—could have done more to tap into this current context of pervasive fear and anger.

Mina Cheon, Dreaming Unification: Oori (우리) Protest for Peace (2019–2020). IKB paint, stencil, spray paint, sumi ink on canvas. Exhibition view: We Do Not Dream Alone, Asia Society Museum, New York. Courtesy Asia Society. Photo: © Bruce M. White, 2021.

Part Two opens with a curatorial statement from Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Asia Society's vice president for global artistic programmes as well as this project's artistic director, which announces that 'the Triennial does not purport to be exhaustive in its representation' and ends with a (by now, over one year into the global pandemic) boilerplate sentence about the 'healing potential of art to unite and empower.'...READ MORE