Paaj ntaub, a traditional Hmong textile art, has kept Hmong culture alive through centuries of forced migration and displacement. Outside of its formal use, this textile art was utilized as a tool for resistance from oppression, persecution, and war in Asia as “stateless” people fighting for peace. Connecting to this spirit, Tshab Her explores her experiences of finding agency amongst the status quo in an immersive textile installation highlighting moments of clarity and desire in These Moments.
Her’s creative curiosities and explorations were stifled at a young age as she experienced the pressures of convention and tradition. To appease the adults in her life, she followed the conventional path that was set before her—leaving no room for passion or desire as she struggled to find herself outside of traditional values. Clothing and art became avenues for exploration and expression that awakened her voice as a young Hmong woman growing up in the United States far from the mountains of Southeast Asia.
This installation is a dynamic revelation set as a multiple series with focus on each pivotal moment in the artist’s life. With its first installation exhibited as a part of Cloth as Land: HMong Indigeneity, Her explores the development of her personal style and relationship to clothing and fashion. In this new installation, the second of the series, These Moments imitate the slow process of self-definition as it showcases Her’s love and rediscovery of art in youth.
These Moments captures Her choosing her own path in the midst of pressure to conform to convention and tradition and lose her soul to a world undergirded by hyper-individualism, self-centeredness and violence, or, risk success, conformity, and acceptance in the eyes of the world in order to preserve her true self connected to the spirit of her ancestors.
The expansive flow of this textile installation celebrates Hmong adaptability, resilience, and spirit—offering a glimpse into the intimacy of choice and following a path that makes Her feel alive.
