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The image holds carpeted brown flooring with 3 purple floor cushions laid out on the floors. There are 24 collective paintings hung on the bottom half of the walls. The left wall holds 8 paintings, back middle wall holds 6 paintings, and the left wall holds 9 paintings each with their own respective labels. There is a low table against the back wall that also holds 2 paintings. The pantings show East Asian American women doing mundane daily activities from cooking, brushing their teeth, sitting on the couch, looking in the fridge, etc. Some of the paintings hold stills of objects like food, shoes, and dishes. 2 lamps stand lit at each back corner. On the left wall closest to the entryway, there is a shoe rack with a label on the wall that invites viewers to "Kindly Take off your shoes before entering. Please feel free to grab a cushion and sit." In all it is a homey setting.

Retake: Look Again and Keep Looking

Michelle Ha

Oil on Canvas, 2022

Undergraduate
Retake: Look Again and Keep Looking is a series of oil paintings that depict East Asian American women by subverting the traditional tropes from films of female Asian women as dragon ladies or submissive damsels in distress. The portraits destabilize these stereotypes by placing East Asian American women through the lens of cinematic depictions of intimate settings. By recontextualizing the history of oil paint in western paintings, the works subvert how women have been depicted through the male, white gaze. The titles and paintings utilize the expectations of the audience by juxtaposing the stereotypical movie titles/tropes compared to the intimate real portrayal of the subjects: the everyday lives of people are understandable. These works are presented in a living room-esque setting, creating a comfortable place for the viewers to confront their own biases and voyeuristic tendencies.