Artist Kenneth Tam and Sophia Marisa Lucas, Assistant Curator, Queens Museum, join Kyung An, Assistant Curator, Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, to discuss the virtual premiere of Tam’s film Silent Spikes (2020).

In this new work, Tam considers how Asian men have been stereotyped and maligned and uses the figure of the cowboy as a way to re-imagine tropes of American masculinity. In addition, Silent Spikes incorporates visual and narrative references to the labor strike organized by Chinese Transcontinental Railroad workers in 1867 in order to reflect on the legacy of this often overlooked but historically significant act of defiance. Working collaboratively with participants, Tam explores expressions of male subjectivity that resist oppression, and asks, “What might Asian American masculinity look like?”

To accompany this talk, Silent Spikes will be available for viewing December 9–12.

This free program will be livestreamed here and on the Guggenheim’s YouTube channel.

Kenneth Tam’s forthcoming solo exhibition, Silent Spikes, will be presented at the Queens Museum in Spring 2021.

Silent Spikes was made possible with support from the Asian Art Circle at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.