Freedom of Artistic Self-Reflection
Barry McGee, creator of the infamous Ray Fong character that Adidas emblazoned on their line of shoes, weighs in on the controversy.
Like many other artists, Barry McGee animated a part of himself into his work. In Ray Fong, a squinty eyed cartoon youngster with bad teeth and the ubiquitous bowl cut hairstyle, McGee sees himself at age eight standing in front of a Christmas tree holding a stocking.
“Except for the bowl cut, I pretty much look the same,” said McGee, 40, who describes his animated alter ego as “cute.”
But when the image was emblazoned on a line of $250 limited edition Adidas shoes, some Asian Pacific Americans didn’t find Ray Fong very endearing. In the slash of his eyes and the protrusion of buckteeth, they saw an old world racist caricature. Pictures of the black and gold shoe design filtered through the internet world, landing McGee’s name in blogs, message boards and news headlines.
The fact that the shoe, called the “Y1 Huf” was a part of Adidas’ “Yellow Line” campaign didn’t help either. Responses ranged from contemplative to downright vitriolic.
“I see it as more infantile than anything. Who’s the target audience? Eighth graders?” wrote a reader of Japundit.com.
The controversy, which was also picked up by international news organizations in Asia and Europe, has left the artist a little perplexed.
“I stepped off of the plane and received a barrage of e-mails and phone calls,” said the internet-shy artist who gained fame through graffiti art tagging and creating under the alias Twist and, of course, Ray Fong — the name of an uncle long passed away. He says he does not own a television and tries not to “understand the world” through blogs and describes his aesthetic as “a mess” and “reckless.”
“I just thought people were up to speed but I guess there are still things haunting people in the closets,” he added citing the subversive racial humor of “The Simpsons.”
Online, the debate about racial representation raged on. And to complicate matters, McGee is half Chinese. Every news article (including this one) makes this qualifying point to add an extra layer to the debate.
Is the image, which drawn by any other hands could be considered a racist caricature, thereby a self-reflexive, subversive image in the hands of McGee’s?
“Yeah my mom is Chinese, but what does that bring to the discussion really? Does that help fuel the fire or fan it?”
Another artist, Kara Walker, uses startling silhouette images of minstrel caricatures to challenge racial stereotypes, and the question comes up here too: since Walker is African American, is it okay?
Or under the guise of art, can you talk about what you want, asked McGee.
The San Francisco native has been using the Ray Fong character for years in art installations for the Giant Robot store in Los Angeles, which specializes in APA popular culture items, and the New York-based gallery, Deitch Projects. McGee also has “sketchbooks full of these images.”
But critics say Ray Fong’s presence on a popular shoe for Adidas has an entirely different resonance.
“Maybe I am hopelessly unhip, but to me there is a difference between something hanging on a gallery wall or painted on the side of a building, and something on a $250 pair of sneakers sold by a big corporation,” said Deborah Kong, a San Francisco-based graduate student.
As a response to the controversy, Adidas issued a statement explaining the Y1 Huf shoe was part of six-color collection series with only 1,000 pairs created and available in 12 retail stores. The inclusion of this shoe as part of the “Yellow Series” was an “unfortunate coincidence.”
“I expect more from a big corporation like Adidas. I think they should have given more thought to the implications of the image before putting it on a sneaker,” said Kong. “With the resources that Adidas has, it seems strange that they could not have anticipated this. Maybe this points to the fact that they need to be more culturally sensitive.”
McGee fans like Eric Nakamura of Giant Robot defend the shoe as an artist’s artwork.
“It’s about context,” Nakamura wrote on his blog. “I’m sure there is such a thing as racist art, but this isn’t it.”
But Lois Vierk, 54, approaches the controversy as a mother.
“To see this image, on an icon of pop culture only strengthens racist views,” said Vierk.
The New Jersey-based composer adopted Wendy Shufen from China in 1998. She makes it a point to devote time to celebrating Wendy Shufen’s Chinese heritage and beauty, but at eight and one-half, she has already experienced the sting of racisim. Twice already, school children have made comments about slanty eyes and pulled back their faces.
Perhaps they are parroting what they have seen in popular culture and sneakers are perceived to be very cool to kids, said Vierk.
“Pulled out of context and placed on something for kids to buy, I think it is irresponsible. It’s irresponsible of the company to choose that image and it’s irresponsible of the artist to use it,” she added.
McGee is reflective about his work, but he contends his motives are transparent, innocuous and complete only with context.
“I can see where out of context and without proper information it can be interpreted as being negative. It was never meant to be derogatory,” said McGee, but he has no regrets about his decision to lend the image to the shoe.
“I don’t lose sleep over it, but if anything comes out of it I hope there’s decent dialogue. I hope there is some positive dialogue about representation and caricature.”
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