CYJO’s Mixed Blood series depicts a waypoint in humanity’s progress toward a more integrated society, with the family unit as its base — as represented by specific families in two of the world’s most influential nations.
Mixed Blood is a group of photographs and texts created by CYJO between 2010 and 2013. It portrays families with children of “mixed” races, ethnicities, and cultures in New York City and Beijing. These photographs and narratives compel us to consider the distance our societies have traveled in our understanding of race, ethnicity and identity, as well as the distance we have yet to close, in our journey toward a more unified culture.
The families in Mixed Blood present the unprecedented diversity of human relationships, and the increased blending of races and cultures, in the 21st century. At the same time, the series suggests the evolving role of individuals and families in defining their own unique identities and shaping their own values in ways that use race and ethnicity as a partial frame, but that also begin – literally and physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and socially – to blur traditional lines and create new categories and connections.
Certainly, the very subject of the series acknowledges that background, race, ethnicity and culture continue to be important factors in how individuals are assessed by society, and how individuals themselves explain their affiliations and experiences. At the same time, however, CYJO’s series hints that, despite living in two very different hemispheres, countries, societies and cities, the urban families in Mixed Blood are experiencing a similar and growing autonomy -– a greater capacity for self expression and self-invention –- than those of previous generations.
Nik Apostolides, Curator
EXHIBITION
CYJO | Mixed Blood
May 30th, 2014 – June 18th, 2014
Today Art Museum
4th Fl. Exhibition Hall of Building 1
Pingod Community, No.32 Baiziwan Road
Chaoyang District
Beijing, China
This exhibition is sponsored and organized by the US Embassy Beijing and Today Art Museum. It will be traveling to multiple cities in China.
