Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066: The Tag Project
March 1 – May 24, 2014
Artist Wendy Maruyama’s celebrated large-scale sculptural installation honoring 120,000 Japanese- Americans interned during WWII.
In 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry. Wendy Maruyama, a third generation Japanese-American and highly regarded educator and artist/furniture maker based in San Diego, has created a compelling body of work examining this period in American history. The exhibition includes three integrated parts: Executive Order 9066, The Tag Project, and an exhibition of historical artifacts.
The Tag Project: Presented at the ICA. Each interned citizen wore a paper identification tag, which inspired Maruyama to embark on the project. Enlisting help from hundreds of volunteers across the country, Maruyama recreated each tag – 120,000 – to represent every person who was sent to one of 10 internment camps. This large-scale installation consists of 10 groupings of 120,000 recreated paper identification tags suspended from the ceiling that evoke a powerful sense of the humiliation endured by the internees.
Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order: 9066: Presented at ArtObjectGallery. This exhibition features a series of wall-mounted cabinets and sculptures created by Wendy Maruyma that enshrine elements of life in the internment camps. The pieces integrate photo transfers based on the documentary photographs of Dorothea Lange and Toyo Miyatake in conjunction with materials such as barbed wire, tar paper and domestic objects.
Executive Order 9066: Memories and Artifacts: Presented at JAMsj. This exhibition highlights artifacts from the Museum’s permanent collection that reveal the historical events surrounding the forced incarceration of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II.
“Executive Order 9066 not only reminds us of a dark time in our nation’s history but also provides context for the current conversation regarding immigration reform, racial profiling and privacy laws,” says Cathy Kimball, ICA Executive Director. “We’re honored to partner with JAMsj to lend historical perspective to their contemporary presentation as well as ArtObjectGallery to showcase sculptures that incorporate artifacts from the camps.”
Opening Reception events will be held on Friday, March 14, at each of the following exhibition venues:
Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066: The Tag Project: 6pm-8pm, San Jose ICA: 560 South 1st Street, downtown San Jose
Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066: 7pm-9pm, ArtObjectGallery: 592 North 5th Street, Japantown San Jose
Executive Order 9066: Memories and Artifacts: 6pm-9pm, Japanese American Museum of San Jose,
535 North 5th Street, Japantown San Jose
A free shuttle bus will transport guests between opening reception events. An accompanying catalog with an essay by Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims, Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, will be available for purchase at presenting venues.
Talking Art
Social Justice: Progress or Regress in America?
San Jose ICA and San Jose Stage
May. 14, 2014
This special Talking Art panel will discuss and explore ways in which we can take the conversation of Executive Order 9066 forward: how it is still relevant today, and how it is shaping our future.
ICA Education Center
Cardinale Project Room
March. 1 – May. 24, 2014
Learn, share, and engage through the education room for Executive Order 9066.
A Panel Discussion featuring Zoe Lofgren, U.S. Representative, Luis Valdez, Chicano playwright, Maha Elgenaidi, Muslim educator and activist, and Jeff Rosen, Santa Clara County District Attorney
Moderator: Larry Stone, Santa Clara County Assessor
Held in conjunction with “Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066: The Tag Project”, an artist’s response to the WWII Japanese-American Internment camps
“Too many people have forgotten, or never knew, that tens of thousands of Americans were rounded up, interrogated and sent to camps for no crime other than their Japanese ancestry. In an era of secret terrorism courts, widespread government surveillance, and Minuteman patrols, we need to be confronted with the realities of 1942…”
– Los Angeles Times, 2013
The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) will present a panel discussion titled “Social Justice: Progress or Regress in America?” on May 14, at 7pm at the San Jose Stage Company. Inspired by the exhibition Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066: The Tag Project, which explores the emotional and societal impact of the WWII Japanese American internment camps, the panel will explore the ways American society has progressed and/or regressed in terms of social and racial justice in our communities. What we have learned from our past? Is social justice still out of reach for many American citizens? How can we individually shape the future of our communities?
This special event will begin at 6pm with a wine reception at the ICA, 560 South First Street, San Jose and progress on to the San Jose Stage Company, 490 South First Street, for the panel discussion, which starts at 7pm.