Yaya Sung Indonesia, b. 1986
Unfamiliar Roots:Walking Banana, 2012
Photography on Platinum Photo Paper. Wooden Frame
60 cm x 120 cm
Yaya Sung, Unfamiliar Roots:Walking Banana, 2012
IDR 16,000,000.00
Currency:
The skin of a banana represents a terminology she encountered in an English-speaking newspaper during a visit to Shanghai: ‘banana men’, which refers to Chinese descendants who were born and...
The skin of a banana represents a terminology she encountered in an English-speaking newspaper during a visit to Shanghai: ‘banana men’, which refers to Chinese descendants who were born and raised in western countries (in especially America). Since western culture – with its stereotype of being ‘white-skinned’ – have become so ingrained in them, they are likened to a banana: white flesh, with a yellow skin. This shows that one of the main problems that Yaya probes into is the idea about cultural identity. As a Chinese descent who was born and raised in Jakarta, how should she position herself in an identity-map that is made up of two wholly difference cultures? For Yaya, the question of “who am I” always brings with it a sense of unease, for the two cultures that are supposedly ‘hers’ in fact feel foreign and unfamiliar.
