Raleigh Hightower
Lifestyle Editor
rhightower@murraystate.edu
In an effort to explore the bicultural experience of Filipino Americans, senior fine art and art education major Kerrie Pullen is displaying her solo exhibition, “Bridgeable Shores,” at the Murray Art Guild.
Pullen was selected to present her exhibit after receiving the Murray Art Guild’s MAGpie Award during the Organization of Murray Art Students annual student art exhibition.
“I was genuinely so shocked,” Pullen said. “I expected the award to go to one of the other upperclassmen, but when I was called, I was super confused at first, but then ecstatic. There are so many insanely talented students at Murray State. I’m very grateful I was chosen.”
The winner of the MAGpie Award is rewarded with a cash prize, a pie and a chance to have a solo exhibition at the Murray Art Guild.
Pullen’s exhibit features charcoal and cont? drawings that are cut and layered together to form a collage of images. The exhibit focuses conceptually on the cultural experience and identities of Filipino Americans.
“When thinking about my identity, I realized an aspect of myself I never felt allowed to relate to was my Filipino heritage,” Pullen said. “Questions of ‘Am I Filipino enough to be this? Who am I to know anything about what it means to be Filipino?’ constantly arise.”
In the exhibit, three large collaged drawings are featured on the walls of the room. These drawings create a narrative scene meant to be personal and relatable to those of Filipino American descent.
One such collage titled “Pilipinas Party” features three Filipina women playing music together. “Pilipina” is the Tagalog word for the Philippines. In the collage, one of these women, a mother figure playing the piano, has the head of a carabao, the national animal of the Philippines.
Pullen explains in her artist statement this figure with the carabao head was meant to symbolize femininity and fertility.
Another one of the collaged images located on the right wall of the exhibit is titled “Your Best American Girl.” Pullen explained this title was inspired by Japanese American singer-songwriter Mitski.
“The title comes from a Mitski song that deconstructs self loathing and a desire for white proximity among Asian American women, which speaks of an experience in such an honest and particular way,” Pullen said. “Something that many Asian American women I’ve spoken to experienced growing up in American public schools is the desire to be a white woman and wanting to fit into American society using a white individual as a catalyst.”
“Your Best American Girl” depicts five figures in a classroom facing a whiteboard and a teacher with a comical appearance. On the whiteboard, there is an image of the Philippines featuring a Tagalog caption.
“As a future educator, I wanted to make a piece that focused on an American classroom and how often POC students feel isolated and do not belong in that space, which affects spaces and lives outside of that classroom later,” Pullen said. “It’s a piece that was important for me to present to an audience.”
In addition to the three collages, the exhibit also features a work titled “Connected,” which circles the floor of the exhibit. “Connected” seeks to expand the application of Pullen’s theme of identity by featuring quotes from 20 other women and nonbinary people’s experiences with their Filipino heritage.
“For the past 10 months, I’ve been connecting and communicating with a group of Fil Am women and nonbinary people,” Pullen said. “We have a mass group chat where we talk about past experiences, funny stories about our families, recipes, memories and more traumatic moments.”
“Connected” features 20 portraits of different individuals with Filipino heritage attached to Spam cans. Quotes from them are seen on their portraits. Pullen’s theme of experiencing conflict within identity is echoed in “Connected” by an individual the exhibit refers to as “Breanna.”
“Through the anecdotes of people like me, I realized that I wasn’t alone in enduring this weird feeling between my cultural roots and the struggle to feel I belonged in this country, frequently being pulled and prodded into an ‘all-American’ image and away from my Filipino heritage,” Breanna said in a quote featured on her portrait.
Pullen explained that she carefully considered the community and the region when crafting the exhibit and wanted specifically to bring her message to this audience.
“We live in southern rural Kentucky, which is a region that isn’t always accepting or open to diversity,” Pullen said. “I want viewers to be able to relate to both my drawings and these people’s experiences to question societal stereotypes of Asian Americans and bicultural bodies.”
Pullen’s exhibit is open to the public at the Murray Art Guild until Oct. 22. The Murray Art Guild is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.