The work’s title, in contrast, suggests another kind of Asian-ness - that of Asian-American-ness, which may not always be immediately legible as “Asian.” Bottarga is a kind of fish roe sac, considered a culinary delicacy, and Costa Mesa refers to the city in Orange County known for South Coast Plaza, a luxury shopping mall. These references hint at themes of status and suburbia amid an increasingly globalized landscape and allude to Asian American communities in Southern California. In combining such disparate sources, Yao points to how symbols—whether cultural, linguistic, or political—are flattened as indiscriminate aesthetic material under the indifferent logic of consumer culture. With one version of Asian-ness juxtaposed against another, the fence serves as an explicit embodiment of the contested lines drawn around representation, demonstrating the ineffectiveness of attempting to draw such boundaries in the first place.
Exhibition Dates: February 10 - August 29, 2024.