Art Apart: Citizenship Rights, At What Cost?

AND AND AND — Stammering: An Interview

One artwork in the exhibition, AND AND AND — Stammering: An Interview, is an ongoing performance and installation project. The work draws upon complex questions of immigration, exclusion, and the performance of belonging. Using the format of an interrogation, participants explore the process one would experience in attempting to become a US citizen. As part of an October 17 performance of the work, more than 70 people waited patiently in a Zoom meeting, anxious to find out whether it was their turn to apply for citizenship. Artists Hương Ngô and Hồng-Ȃn Trương began the performance by explaining that the chosen interviewee's rights to reside in their state had been stripped due to an executive order. After the conclusion of the interview, they would determine whether citizenship would be granted. Their interrogation is drawn from historical questions asked of Chinese immigrants on Angel Island, current citizenship questions, and material from a 2017 executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries. At its core, the artwork examines how we determine whether someone can become a citizen in this nation—and how we place value.

In exploring ways to foster performance and dialogue during our current moment, the performance took a different shape from its in-gallery form to a new, virtual experience, which allowed for wider audience engagement and participation. In the physical, in-gallery iteration of AND AND AND — Stammering: An Interview, the installation uses a two-way glass mirror to create a separate interrogation room and viewing space. When transitioning to the virtual performance, the anonymity of those watching the interrogation no longer existed, as all viewers were placed in the same interrogation space. Though only one person was chosen to apply for citizenship, this online format continued to prompt all audience members to imagine their own responses as they followed along.

On the occasion of the new commission of AND AND AND — Stammering: An Interview as part of Alien vs.Citizen, Ngô and Trương, along with Ngô's School of the Art Institute class, collaboratively created “Scores For Sanctuary.” This zine features workshops developed to explore how art making allows for experimentation in better understanding forms and concepts of citizenship. Having experienced being the interviewee during one of our dress rehearsals for the October performance, I opted to try out the family interviews to ask my father, an Antiguan immigrant, about his experience with obtaining his green card almost 30 years ago, a conversation we've never had before. When I asked why he never applied for citizenship, he simply said the complex process of obtaining his green card was enough to make him not want to pursue further.